Crude oil production resumed on July 1 at the Wafra oilfield, which is a joint venture between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, according to a tweet from the Kuwait oil ministry.

Initial output at the Wafra oilfield is expected to resume at 10,000 barrels of oil per day (bbl/d), before rising to 70,000 bbl/d at the end of August, and reach 145,000 bbl/d by the end of 2020.

The Wafra oilfield is located in the Neutral Zone on the boundary of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Due to the nature of the field spanning over two boundaries, Saudi Arabian Chevron (SAC) and Kuwait Gulf Oil Company (KGOC) run joint operations at the field.

Oil production also resumed on Monday at another shared field, Khafji, on July 1, after a one-month hiatus.

Khafji and Wafra oilfields’ operations were halted for June so as to comply with OPEC+ production cuts. 

However, up until December 2019, the two countries were embroiled in a  five-year dispute over the Neutral Zone. They agreed on sharing the zone’s production in order to sustain their needs. Prior to this hiatus, the total output of the zone was approximately 500,000 bbl/d.