A DISPUTE between Qatar and Saudi Arabia is hindering the progress of a gas pipeline project to supply Kuwait with Qatari gas, Nasser Jaidah, director of the new ventures department of state-run Qatar Petroleum, said on last week.
He said Saudi authorities have not yet designated the body with which Qatar is to negotiate the transit of the pipeline to be built by US giant ExxonMobil. He restated Qatar's desire to start gas deliveries to Kuwait in early 2006, in accordance with the protocol agreement the two countries signed in January. The pipeline is supposed to head north from Qatar to Bahrain, and then through Saudi waters to Kuwait.
As part of the background to this, in late September the Saudi Arabian government recalled its ambassador to Qatar in a dispute worsened by television programs deemed offensive to the Kingdom, broadcast on the Qatari Al Jazeera television channel.
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