Page 356 - The Arabian Gulf States_Neat

292 THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE ARABIAN GULF STATES

(b) Overlapping of concession areas
Disputes over the delimitation of the offshore boundaries in the
higher Gulf arose as a result of the overlapping of oil concessions
covering the various areas described above. These disputes became
publicly known after the publication of the sets of concessions of
1957-8 which were granted by each of Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait
to various oil concerns. A further aggravation of these disputes
occurred in 1961, as a result of the signing of Kuwait-Shell offshore
agreement. However, it was not until 1963 that these claims to con-
cessionary areas had actually assumed an international character. It
may be desirable to explain briefly the development of these claims
and counter-claims below:

(i) Pre-announcement of National Iranian Oil Company No. 22S/15,
1 April 19631
On 1 April 1963 NIOC published an Announcement in Platt's Oil-
gram Service in which it declared open for international bidding, with
effect from 1 July 1964, two areas of the continental shelf of the
Arabian Gulf adjacent to the Iranian mainland: Area 1 of District I
is located north of the two areas and it comprises the concession area
which was originally held by IPAC, but with an additional area of
380 sq. miles. Area 2 of District I is located to the south of IPAC
area but separated from it by a wedge of some 15,000 sq. kilometres.
(ii) Diplomatic protests by littoral Arab States against the Iranian
pre-announcement of 1 April 1963
The Iranian Pre-announcement provoked diplomatic protests from
Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Iraq was the first Arab country to
deliver a strongly worded protest to Iran. In its statement dated 1 May
1963, the Iraqi Government stated, inter alia, that
. . . since most of the areas declared open (for bidding) are exclusively
Iraqi territorial waters, it will not recognise, nor permit, any concession
granted to any party whatsoever for oil exploration in these areas. ... All
the parties concerned must ascertain the ownership of these areas before
seeking to grant or acquire any oil exploration concessions in them. . . .*
On 4 June 1963, the Kuwaiti Government followed the Iraqi
Government’s example by issuing a statement in which it condemned
the action of National Iranian Oil Company as an infringement of its
territorial sovereignty. The area declared open for concession, the
statement continued, constituted ‘an additional infringement on the
continental shelf of Kuwait’.3
1 MEES, No. 27, 10 May and No. 31,7 June 1963.
* MEES, No. 27, 10 May 1963.
3 MEES, No. 31, 7 June, and No. 32, 14 June 1963.