Mr Furat al Sharei member of Iraqi Council of Representatives Oil and Energy Committee said that the 10 oil fields that spread across the Iraqi and Kuwaiti frontier are still waiting to have a line drawn through them to delineate the border more than eight years after a coalition led by US forces toppled the regime of Iraqi President Mr Saddam Hussein.

Mr Al Sharei said that the 2 countries must first collaborate in developing legislation for equitably sharing the fields before oil extraction can begin. The problem of the common fields can be resolved by developing legal mechanisms.

While Iraq and Kuwait are now at peace many of the border issues that led to conflict two decades ago remain which no amount of diplomatic bonhomie can completely paper over.

In 1993 the United Nations Security Council Resolution 833 precisely delineated the previous borders between Iraq and Kuwait following Mr Saddam Hussein's invasion of his neighbor in August 1990. Iraqi forces were summarily expelled by 34 nation coalition led by the United States during Operation Desert Storm which began in February 1991. That conflict left Iraq with USD 22 billion reparations bill to Kuwait that it is still struggling to pay off, tithing 5% of its oil revenue to its tiny plutocratic southern neighbor.

What were some of Mr Saddam Hussein's grievances against Kuwait? By the time Iraq signed the ceasefire in its punishing eight year war with Iran in August 1988, Iraq was virtually bankrupt, owing USD 80 billion in debt to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait which now pressured Baghdad for repayment with interest. Iraq pressured both nations to forgive the debts but they refused. Iraq also accused Kuwait of exceeding its OPEC quotas and driving down the price of oil, thus further hurting the Iraqi economy, as collapsing oil prices further decimated the Iraqi economy.

Baghdad also repeatedly protested to no avail about what it claimed was economic warfare waged by Kuwait's slant-drilling into disputed border regions, which reached as far as Iraq's Rumaila oil field. Despite the overthrow of Mr Saddam Hussein's regime in March 2003 two years later Kuwait began the construction of a 125 mile metal barrier along its land borders with Iraq in early 2005.

But with a new administration in Baghdad, on November 23rd 2006 Mr Khaled al Jarallah Kuwait's Foreign Ministry Undersecretary said following talks with Iraq's Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Mr Mohammad alHaj that "We have signed a deal after which Kuwait will be able to complete the construction of the security fence. As the arrangement calls for the payment of compensation to Iraqi farmers on the border, the requisite amount "had been deposited with the United Nations. We have completed the practical requirements for the demarcation of borders based on UN Security Council Resolution 833.

Five years later, little has moved since the practical requirements for the demarcation of borders. The reestablishment of bilateral Iraqi-Kuwaiti diplomatic relations has been even more glacial. Kuwait reopened its embassy in Iraq in 2008 after nearly 19 years of broken diplomatic relations, while the Consulate of Iraq was again opened in Kuwait only last year.

Local Iraqis based in Basra have a very different view of UN Security Council Resolution 833, stating that it led to the transfer of a significant amount of Iraqi land, hosting both oil wells and agriculture such as tomato farms to Kuwait as well as the establishment of a wide zone of neutrality between the two countries which again favored the emirate. A high ranking Iraqi government official in the Safwan border region who had had some of his own land confiscated when the new border was marked out commented that the locals describe "the unjust demarcation of borders as well as their government's reluctance to put an end to this injustice.

Once again, local Iraqis 2 decades later are complaining that Kuwaitis are stealing Iraqi oil in border areas by using directional drilling techniques. Local Basra government officials say that they have proof of the Kuwaiti theft and have forwarded it to Baghdad offering as proof the fact that pressure in some oil reservoirs near the border has dropped significantly, which local Iraqi government officials believe has been caused by Kuwaiti drilling to tap the same reservoirs.

Ratcheting up the tension, Mr Ali al Mu'men Kuwait's ambassador to Baghdad recently denied Iraqi allegations and instead accused Iraqi companies of extracting oil from Kuwaiti oil reserves.

For Mr Farid Khalid head of the energy committee of the Basra provincial council, the issue is simple "No oil work was done on the Iraqi, Kuwaiti and Iranian borders by the Iraqi government for years which is why the oil reserves were open for looting."

So as in the immediate aftermath of Operation Desert Storm, Kuwait has the cash and the backing of the US government hardly a recipe for regional stability. Further weighting the scales in Kuwait's favor as some of the US forces leaving Iraq by year's end are due to redeploy there, with the Pentagon discussing shifting a combat brigade team of about 3,500 troops and possibly other units to Kuwait to join the roughly 20,000 US forces already there.

Source: http://oilprice.com/Geo-Politics/Middle-East/Could-War-Flare-Again-Between-Iraq-and-Kuwait.html

By John CK Daly of Oilprice.com