Shared oilfield deal inked between Kuwait and Iraq

Calcutta News.Net
Sunday 29th August, 2010

A deal has been made to regulate the border oilfields between Kuwait and Iraq.

An in principle agreement has been signed in which production from once conflicted fields will be administered by a unified international company, which will be allowed to drill for oil.

The Kuwaiti oil minister has said the technical negotiations between the two nations are at an end with both parties agreeing to sign off on the arrangement.

Kuwait has already signed and Iraq is expected to do the same this week.

The deal will prevent the sort of accusations that occurred 20 years ago, when Iraq invaded its small Gulf Arab neighbor after the Saddam regime accused Kuwait of stealing billions of dollars worth of oil through horizontal drilling.

While Kuwait denied the charge both sides have since traded accusations of oil theft.

Several fields overlap the desert border that was delineated by the United Nations after the 1991 Gulf War that liberated Kuwait.

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