Kuwait has resumed crude oil exports from the Wafra field, located in the neutral zone shared with Saudi Arabia, loading around 1 mbl of crude oil to be exported to Asia. This is the first shipment from the neutral zone in 5 years.
In 2019, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia signed an agreement to end a 5-year dispute over shared resources, allowing a restart of production at the Khafji and Wafra fields, which was suspended in May 2015, and allowing Kuwait to develop its share of the Dorra gas field. In February 2020, trial production from the neutral zone started, with the aim to reach 80,000 bbl/d by September 2020 and 145,000 bbl/d by early 2021.
With the end of the OPEC+ crude oil production curb agreement and Saudi Arabia's decision to raise its oil production to record high in April 2020 and to boost its production capacities, oil production from Khafji and Wafra is now expected to reach 320,000 bbl/d by the end of 2020 and to reach its full production capacity of 550,000 bbl/d before the end of 2021.