The United Arab Emirates said on Sunday it wants to amend a 1974 border pact with Saudi Arabia, which media reports said involved sharing an oilfield along the border of the two Gulf oil producers. Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed al-Nahayan said he would visit Saudi Arabia to discuss Abu Dhabi's request, following a visit to the UAE last week by Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz.
"During Prince Nayef's visit, there was a frank and transparent dialogue regarding certain border matters. The UAE stated that some parts of the 1974 agreement could no longer be implemented and it presented fundamental amendments," Sheikh Hamdan said in comments carried by the state news agency WAM.
Sheikh Hamdan did not give details on the amendments or say when he would go to Saudi Arabia.
On Wednesday, Prince Nayef said the two countries were close to finalising their border pact but denied a report by Al Hayat daily that the two sides discussed a UAE request to exploit its part of Shaybah oilfield, which falls mainly in Saudi territory.
The Saudi-owned newspaper said the UAE was seeking new terms as the 1974 border deal, signed three years after the UAE was established, gave Saudi Arabia rights to all oil and gas finds in the field.
"The UAE was a young country in 1974 and needed the recognition of Saudi Arabia, so it had few options at the time other than going along with the agreement," said an Arab diplomat who declined to be identified. "Since then the UAE has stopped short of ratifying the agreement and voiced reservations when Saudi Arabia has brought it up in international organisations," he added.
Another Arab daily, London-based al-Quds al-Arabi, had said that Prince Nayef proposed sharing the Shaybah oilfield equally in return for the UAE giving up its demands to islands and waters of Khawr al-Udayd area near Qatar.
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