Jawad Owji made the remarks on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting while speaking to journalists present at the presidential compound in downtown Tehran on Wednesday faternoon.

“The oil ministry has joint cooperation in the oil sector in the Persian Gulf,” the minister said, adding that extraction from the joint fields has been done in accordance with the memorandums of understanding signed.

With respect to the joint Arash field, which is shared between Iran and Kuwait, the oil minister clarified, “We have announced to Kuwait in this regard that, like other joint fields, we are ready to jointly extract from this field in accordance with Islamic Republic of Iran’s rights.”

He added, “If Kuwait is not interested in this cooperation, we know what to do and we will not retreat even one iota ion this subject.”

Owji went on to point to Phase 11 of the South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf and described it as the most important and farthest phase of the field. 

“Contracts [on constructing Phase 11] used to be resigned for about 20 years one after another and finally it was in the 13th administration [under President Ebrahim Raeisi] that 100% of the operations of this phase were done,” he added.

He further pointed out that Phase 11 of South Pars will be put into operation in the coming weeks.

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