Kuwait and Saudi Arabia end Neutral Zone spat

摘要

Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have reached a long-awaited agreement to resume production in their shared Neutral Zone. The deal comes as the two countries prepare to attend an oil producers’ meeting in Doha, Qatar, on 17 April to discuss whether to freeze output at January levels. The 300,000 b/d Khafji and 225,000 b/d Wafra fields in the Neutral Zone were shut in stages between October 2014 and May 2015 as a result of operational disputes between the countries. A restart could leave Kuwait one of the few Opec producers with spare capacity, if a production freeze is agreed to at Doha and adhered to. Kuwait produced 2.75mn b/d of oil in January without any contribution from Neutral Zone fields, Argus estimates. “If there is no agreement, as we are now, every barrel that I produce I will sell,” Kuwaiti acting oil minister Anas al-Saleh said in February. If an output freeze is agreed, “we will commit to this agreement”.