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Source: Reuters -
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Iraq is demanding that Iran immediately withdraw its soldiers
from a disputed oilfield on the two countries' border, but Tehran
denies any incursion.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said 11 Iranian soldiers
have taken control of the Fakka oilfield in a remote desert area of
southeastern Iraq, in a "violation of Iraqi sovereignty".
"Iraq demands the immediate withdrawal from well No 4 and the
Fakka oilfield, which belongs to Iraq.
Iraq is looking for a peaceful and diplomatic settlement to this
issue," he said.
Dabbagh did not give a deadline for withdrawal and did not say what
Iraq would do if Iran failed to comply.
Officials have summoned Tehran's envoy in Iraq to discuss the
matter, he said.
Iraqi officials said the Iranian soldiers crossed into Iraqi
territory on Saturday and raised the Iranian flag at Fakka, whose
ownership is disputed by Iran.
Iraqi Deputy Interior Minister Ahmed Ali al-Khafaji said the
incursion was the latest of several this week at the field, some
300 km southeast of Baghdad in Maysan province.
"At 3:30 this afternoon, 11 Iranian (soldiers) infiltrated the
Iran-Iraq border and took control of the oil well. They raised the
Iranian flag, and they are still there," he said.
Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency later quoted the National
Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) as rejecting the report.
"The company denies Iranian soldiers taking control of any oil well
inside Iraqi territory," Mehr quoted the NIOC as saying.
Khafaji said the well was in Iraqi territory.
"This well is located on Iraqi land, 300 metres inside Iraq. It is
disputed between Iran and Iraq. There was an agreement between the
two countries' oil ministers to fix this problem diplomatically,"
he said.
A senior engineer from Maysan Oil Company, which operates the
field, said Iranian troops had taken temporary control of one of
the field's seven wells, an inoperative well in a disputed border
area, four or five times this year.
"Iranian forces come to this well periodically, and then at
daybreak they withdraw. They are provoking us ... I don't know why
this is a big deal this time," he said, on condition of
anonymity.
Oil price rises
The benchmark US light crude oil future moved to a high of $74.69
per barrel at 1414 GMT, up from $73.31 at 1108 GMT before the first
reports, and was $74.07 at 1846 GMT.
The incident came a few days after the Iraqi Oil Ministry awarded
leading global energy firms contracts to operate seven oil fields
in its second tender since the 2003 US invasion.
Iraq, whose oil sector is scarred by years of sanctions and war,
says such deals may eventually lift capacity to 12 million barrels
per day, putting it nearly on par with Saudi Arabia and far above
Iran's output of around 4 million barrels per day.
But as US troops prepare to withdraw by 2012, foreign firms must
grapple with persistent violence, political feuds and legal
uncertainties dogging large-scale investments.
The government has been struggling to respond to a spate of
attacks, the last of which killed up to 112 last week in Baghdad,
aimed at destabilising Iraq ahead of March 7 elections.
Ties between Iraq and neighbouring Iran, which fought an eight-year
war in the 1980s, have improved since a Shi'ite-led government took
over in Baghdad following the ousting of Sunni Arab leader Saddam
Hussein in 2003.
Yet relations are tested in areas like eastern Maysan, just one of
many flashpoints of continuing disagreement over shared borders
between the majority Shi'ite Muslim neighbours.
The bilateral relationship is all the more delicate given
Washington and Tehran's standoff over Iran's nuclear programme and
the presence of 115,000 US soldiers on Iraqi soil.
US officials said they were aware of the border incident but there
were no US forces in the area.
Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani told al-Arabiya TV: "Iraq
will not give up its oil wealth, no matter the reason."
With Bazargan and Abu Gharab, Fakka is part of the Maysan Fields,
with an estimated 2.463 billion barrels of reserves.
According Iraq's Oil Ministry, oil output in Fakka began in the
1970s but was suspended during the Iran-Iraq war.
The Maysan engineer said output was now around 10,000 barrels per
day and capacity was 20,000 barrels per day.
Iraq offered the Maysan oilfield complex to global energy firms in
its first postwar development contract auction in June.
But a Chinese consortium, the sole group to bid on the fields,
declined the Oil Ministry's proposal for
fees.
