Kuwait is in advanced talks with Iran to import gas to help meet spiraling domestic demand, a Kuwaiti newspaper said on Wednesday. Kuwait's Oil Minister Mohammad Al-Olaim held talks with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Alireza Sheikh-Attar on Monday to discuss gas import prices, Al-Rai reported in an unsourced report. The newspaper gave no more details. Daily Al-Qabas said Olaim had asked a committee to specify the amount of gas Kuwait wants to import through an underwater pipeline from Iran, and added Iran was willing to cooperate. “The committee will meet with the Iranian side in the next days to discuss the project details and determine the yearly amount to be imported,” Qabas quoted an unspecified source as saying. Kuwait has said it was considering importing gas from Iran and Iraq to help meet rising demand from power plants and industry. It is also negotiating to import gas from Qatar. Record oil export income is fuelling an economic boom across the Gulf, pushing up energy needs. Despite sitting on huge gas reserves, the world's largest oil exporting region is short of gas supplies to feed its own growth. Kuwait began output from some northern gas fields not associated with oil production in June, a six-month delay from the planned start up. It aims to boost gas output from the fields to a billion cubic feet per day by 2015. In March 2006, Kuwait said it had found an estimated 35 trillion cubic feet of non-associated gas along with large amounts of condensates in its north. Kuwait is the world's seventh-largest oil exporter. Separately, Iran is to resume talks with Kuwait to solve a maritime border dispute blocking the development of the Dorra gas field, Sheikh-Attar told Qabas. “It has been decided to resume negotiations again,” he told the paper, adding both countries want the joint committee to finalize a decision soon. The offshore Dorra field, also shared by Saudi Arabia, has been a bone of contention between Tehran and Kuwait since the 1960s. Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said in November during a visit to Kuwait that Iran hoped that the dispute will be resolved by the year's end. State-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation called in July 2007 for the rapid development of the Dorra field as the Gulf Arab state struggles to meet demand for gas from power stations. KPC said then that a treaty with Saudi Arabia should be implemented quickly to accelerate development of the field. Tehran has in the past objected to reports that Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were discussing joint development of Dorra. The field lies on the Gulf continental shelf between OPEC producers Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iran. Riyadh and Kuwait reached a deal on their part of the maritime border in 2000.
