TEHRAN – Iran confirmed Saturday, December 19, the takeover of an oil well on the Iraqi border, in the first such incursion since the US invasion, insisting that the field lies on its territory.
“Our forces are on our own soil,” the armed forces command said in a statement cited by Iran’s Arabic-language Al-Alam television.
“Based on the known international borders, this well belongs to Iran."
Iranian troops on Friday took over Well 4 in Maysan province and raised the Iranian flag over the field.
"We summoned Iran's ambassador to Baghdad yesterday (Friday) to tell him that this attack is unacceptable,” Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad al-Hajj Hamud told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“Our ambassador to Tehran delivered a note to their foreign ministry to ask them to pull out their troops.”
Hamud said an Iranian unit made up of around a dozen soldiers and technicians was still posted at the disputed oil well on Saturday.
Well 4 is in the Fauqa Field, part of a cluster of oilfields which Iraq unsuccessfully put up for auction to oil majors in June.
The field has estimated reserves of 1.55 million barrels.
The Iranian incursion is the first into Iraq since the US-led invasion of 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein, whose forces fought a 1980-1988 war against Iran.
Many leaders of Shiite parties who were exiled to Iran during the Saddam era are now in power in Baghdad.
Oil Fears
But Tehran insisted that the oil well lies on its territory.
"The claim that Iran has occupied an Iraqi oil well is strongly rejected," Alaeddin Borujerdi, head of parliament's national security and foreign policy commission, told IRNA.
The Iranian foreign ministry also accused "external sources" of working to damage relations between Tehran and Baghdad.
Iran said that it would seek a diplomatic solution to the dispute.
"We will resolve this issue in a diplomatic fashion," a spokesman for the Iranian embassy in Baghdad told Reuters.
The Iranian ambassador to Baghdad Hassan Kazemi-Qomi met Iraqi government officials Saturday to discuss the dispute.
The dispute has left world oil markets edgy and sent oil prices high.
New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for January, rose 71 cents on Friday to close at 73.36 dollars a barrel.
In London, Brent North Sea crude for February delivery settled 38 cents higher at 73.75 dollars a barrel.
But the Iraqi government sought Saturday to alley fears of the oil markets.
"This event ... will not affect Iraqi oil production or exports," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Reuters television.
Iraq has 115 billion barrels of proven oil reserves.
“Our forces are on our own soil,” the armed forces command said in a statement cited by Iran’s Arabic-language Al-Alam television.
“Based on the known international borders, this well belongs to Iran."
Iranian troops on Friday took over Well 4 in Maysan province and raised the Iranian flag over the field.
"We summoned Iran's ambassador to Baghdad yesterday (Friday) to tell him that this attack is unacceptable,” Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad al-Hajj Hamud told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“Our ambassador to Tehran delivered a note to their foreign ministry to ask them to pull out their troops.”
Hamud said an Iranian unit made up of around a dozen soldiers and technicians was still posted at the disputed oil well on Saturday.
Well 4 is in the Fauqa Field, part of a cluster of oilfields which Iraq unsuccessfully put up for auction to oil majors in June.
The field has estimated reserves of 1.55 million barrels.
The Iranian incursion is the first into Iraq since the US-led invasion of 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein, whose forces fought a 1980-1988 war against Iran.
Many leaders of Shiite parties who were exiled to Iran during the Saddam era are now in power in Baghdad.
Oil Fears
But Tehran insisted that the oil well lies on its territory.
"The claim that Iran has occupied an Iraqi oil well is strongly rejected," Alaeddin Borujerdi, head of parliament's national security and foreign policy commission, told IRNA.
The Iranian foreign ministry also accused "external sources" of working to damage relations between Tehran and Baghdad.
Iran said that it would seek a diplomatic solution to the dispute.
"We will resolve this issue in a diplomatic fashion," a spokesman for the Iranian embassy in Baghdad told Reuters.
The Iranian ambassador to Baghdad Hassan Kazemi-Qomi met Iraqi government officials Saturday to discuss the dispute.
The dispute has left world oil markets edgy and sent oil prices high.
New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for January, rose 71 cents on Friday to close at 73.36 dollars a barrel.
In London, Brent North Sea crude for February delivery settled 38 cents higher at 73.75 dollars a barrel.
But the Iraqi government sought Saturday to alley fears of the oil markets.
"This event ... will not affect Iraqi oil production or exports," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told Reuters television.
Iraq has 115 billion barrels of proven oil reserves.
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