KUWAIT: The Kuwait Gulf Oil Company, which represents Kuwait in the neutral zone operations with Saudi Arabia, yesterday ordered an immediate probe into who leaked a letter by the oil minister to his Saudi counterpart over oil production in the area. The company said in a statement that an investigation committee has been formed to look into the matter and expressed dismay over the way confidential correspondence had been leaked and published in the press. Several Kuwaiti dailies yesterday published the contents of what they said was a letter sent by Oil Minister Ali Al-Omair to his Saudi counterpart Ali Al-Naimi urging him to resume production in Khafji oilfield in the neutral zone, which pumped over 300,000 barrels per day.
Saudi Arabia suspended production unilaterally at the offshore field in October citing environmental concerns and high emissions of harmful gases, even though Kuwait was entitled to five years’ notice under the joint agreement Omair said in the letter that Kuwait has been incurring heavy losses due to the stoppage and warned that Saudi Arabia will be liable for damages for violating a production sharing agreement signed in 1965 and a joint operations deal struck in March 2010.
In May, operations at the other oilfield in Wafra were halted for maintenance, but since then production has not resumed. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia last month began negotiations to resolve the dispute but without making any progress. Khafji is jointly operated by Kuwait Gulf Oil Co (KGOC) and Saudi Aramco Gulf Operations, while Wafra is operated by KGOC and Saudi Arabian Chevron. Industry sources say Kuwaiti authorities were unhappy with Saudi Arabia for renewing an operating agreement for the Wafra field with Saudi Arabian Chevron for 30 years in 2009 without consulting them. In response, it stopped issuing or renewing visas for Chevron foreign employees.
In a related development, Shiite MP Abdulhameed Dashti, facing charges of insulting Saudi Arabia and endangering diplomatic relations, praised the government for raising the issue of the oilfields with Saudi Arabia. Dashti said in a statement that the government should press for Kuwait’s rights, otherwise more fields may be forced to stop production. Meanwhile, the court of appeals yesterday upheld a two-year jail term against two activists – Ahmad Al-Damkhi and Fahhad Al- Ajmi – for repeating in public the speech of opposition leader Musallam Al-Barrak who is himself serving a two-year jail sentence over making the speech in Oct 2012.
The speech was deemed to include remarks insulting to HH the Amir and his authorities, which Barrak has categorically denied. When the sentence was first issued against Barrak, dozens of activists repeated the speech in solidarity with Barrak. The criminal court however acquitted Sheikh Abdullah Salem Al-Sabah from the charges of insulting the Amir through his Twitter account.
The court accepted claims by Sheikh Abdullah that his account was hacked and those remarks then published. Sheikh Abdullah, a member of the ruling family, was detained for almost six weeks over the accusation. Separately, the criminal court sentenced Shiite activist Ahmad Ashour to three years in jail and asked him to pay KD 1,000 to suspend the implementation of the sentence. Ashour was accused of insulting Saudi Arabia for leading airstrikes against Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen
By B Izzak
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