Petroleum Business Review

Abstract The Arash (Al-Durra) gas field, located in the northern Persian Gulf, is a shared natural resource claimed by Iran, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. Ongoing maritime boundary disputes have made the development of this field a geopolitical and legal challenge. Game theory is used in this research to model the strategic interactions between the three states under various cooperation and competition scenarios. The results indicate that trilateral cooperation would be the greatest economic and security benefits for all parties; however, political tensions and legal barriers, particularly Iran’s non-membership in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), hinder such outcomes in the short term. Iran experiences the greatest losses under competitive strategies, while Saudi Arabia and Kuwait benefit more from bilateral agreements. The study also explores how Iran’s legal position could be strengthened through accession to UNCLOS and the adoption of a flexible strategy that combines active diplomacy with cautious resource exploitation. This approach could improve Iran’s bargaining power and reduce its isolation in the dispute. The research offers a comprehensive analysis of the legal, geopolitical, and economic dimensions of the Arash field conflict and provides actionable policy recommendations to reduce tensions and promote equitable, long-term resource sharing in the region.

Abstract Income distribution and environmental destruction represent two of the most important goals in the Sustainable Development Goals. However, the linkage between income inequality and carbon emissions remains controversial especially in countries with natural oil and gas resources. This paper studies the link between carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and income inequality in Iran over 1985–2020. The modelling results indicate that there is a trade-off between income inequality and CO2 emissions. By applying the Vector Auto regression approach found a direct relationship between Gini coefficient and CO2 emissions and indirect relationship between petrol price and CO2 emissions. Petrol price have a smaller although negative impact on CO2 emissions compared to the positive effect of inequality. To investigate the effect of shocks, Impulse response checked out. According to the variance decomposition, income inequality after carbon dioxide emissions is the most explanatory change in gas emissions among other variables. This paper presents a positive effect of petrol price shocks on carbon dioxide emissions, and also negative effect on carbon dioxide emissions in long term.