Kuwait plans to start exploration for natural gas in what it calls 'undisputed' parts of the offshore Dorra field also claimed by Iran, a senior official said.

“Talks with Iran are continuing over the continental shelf. But, we have decided to ... start exploration in the undisputed part,” energy ministry under-secretary Issa Al Oun said.
The exploration will be carried out in co-ordination with Saudi Arabia, with whom Kuwait signed an agreement in 2000 to divide oil wealth in the offshore fields.
Al Oun said Kuwait will soon invite bids for seismic surveys of part of the Dorra field and other Kuwaiti offshore fields.
He said he did not expect Iran to object to the measure because “exploration will take place in the undisputed parts of the field”.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi, meanwhile, said Kuwaiti exploration must be in undisputed waters amid a demarcation row between the two countries.
“They (Kuwaitis) will naturally not be allowed to do anything in Iran's territorial waters, but if they do anything, it should be where it is not claimed by Iran,” the spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said.
Iran and Kuwait have been negotiating for several years to demarcate their common maritime borders in an area that which includes the gas-rich Dorra field.
Despite some progress, the two sides have yet to reach a final deal.
The dispute goes back to the 1960s when Iran and Kuwait awarded offshore concessions to the former Anglo-Iranian Petroleum Co, now part of BP, and Royal Dutch/Shell that overlapped in the northern part of the Dorra field.
Recoverable gas reserves from Dorra are estimated at some 200 billion cubic meters (seven trillion cubic feet), with potential daily output of between 17 million and 43 million cubic meters (600 million and 1.5 billion cubic feet).
Kuwait is rich in oil but badly needs the Dorra field because it lacks sufficient supplies of natural gas.
In March, Kuwait and Iran signed a $7 billion 25-year deal under which Iran will supply some nine million cubic metres of natural gas a day to the emirate.