Ending five year long dispute, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait sign agreement to resume oil production

Riyadh, December 26: Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have ended a nearly five-year-long dispute over shared oil fields and have agreed to resume oil production from the divided Neutral Zone, but stressed this would not change their OPEC commitments to crude oil production cuts.

 

 

 

The allied Gulf Arab nations signed the agreement in Kuwait City on Tuesday. Local media reported that about 300,000 barrels per day were being pumped from the area before the dispute halted production in early 2015.

 

The deal, disclosed in a statement issued by Riyadh and Kuwait City on Tuesday, has been a pet project of new Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman, half brother to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He has spent years trying to broker differences between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait over land and environmental rights in what is known as the Neutral Zone. The stakes are especially high because the territory is the home to prodigious oil reserves.

 

 

 

The divided zone, located between the two neighbouring countries' land borders, can produce up to half-a-million barrels per day. The state-run Saudi Press Agency reported that the agreement will not affect Saudi Arabia's commitments to reduce its crude output to 9.7 million barrels of per day.