Page 362 - The Arabian Gulf States_Neat

298 THE LEGAL STATUS OF THE ARABIAN GULF STATES
the dispute over the two islands of Qaru and Umm al-Maradim show
that although Kuwait still insists on her full sovereignty over the
islands, she, nevertheless, appears to be willing to concede to Saudi
Arabia the half-share ownership of ‘any income accruing from future
oil discovered’ from the two islands. On the other hand, the Saudi
Minister of Petroleum was reported to have said recently that the
islands in dispute constituted ‘purely legal questions’ and that his
Government and Kuwait agreed to refer them to ‘a conciliation com-
mission of legal experts* for consideration on the basis of legal
principles. When Kuwait and Saudi Arabia reached an agreement in
July 1965, on the division of the Neutral Zone between them, their dis­
pute over the two Neutral Zone islands was still awaiting settlement.1

(f) The problem of capture
The problem of capture adds yet further complications to the already
tangled problems of the overlapping of offshore concession areas in
the Gulf. According to some reports, this problem first arose in May
1963 between Aramco, the holder of Saudi Arabia’s north-eastern
offshore concession, and AOC, the holder of Saudi Arabia and
Kuwait’s offshore concessions of the Neutral Zone. The reports
which referred to what was termed to be ‘a silent war’ between the
two companies ‘over the exploitation of their two adjoining fields’,
stated the problem as follows:
Aramco’s Safaniya offshore field—the world’s largest offshore reservoir
—inclines towards the Japanese-held acreage in the Neutral Zone in a
manner favouring the Japanese company. Consequently, Aramco has not
only increased the producing capacity of its Safaniya field to 360,000 b/d
(with plans for a further increase to 425,000 b/d in 1964), but also felt the
urgent need to offset Japanese production next door which threatens to
drain away Aramco's prize field at Safaniya.2
What is the solution to the above problem? It appears that neither
customary international law nor, for that matter, the 1958 Geneva
Convention on the Continental Shelf could provide, in terms of rigid
legal principles, a satisfactory solution to the problem of capture. If
guidance is sought from Article 6 of the Continental Shelf Convention,
the problem could, most probably, be treated in the light ol the
principle of ‘special circumstances’, as embodied in this Article.3
Consequently, it may be suggested that, in accordance with this
principle, a boundary line could be drawn by agreement on a basis
not corresponding to the line of equidistance, should such a line
1 MEES, No. 19, 13 March 1964 and No. 6, 13 September 1963. See also above,
P‘ •MEES, No. 38, 26 July, and No. 32, 14 June 1963. The producing capacity of
Safaniya field is today estimated to be more than 600,000 b/d.
3 Sec above, p. 288.