Kuwait’s oil minister said on Sunday he hoped Kuwait and Saudi Arabia will resolve the Neutral Zone issue by the end of 2019.
The two countries halted output from the jointly-run oilfields in the so-called Neutral Zone more than three years ago, cutting some 500,000 barrels per day or 0.5 percent of global oil supply.
“We hope that by the end of the year things will be cleared out and things will go back to normal,” Kuwaiti Minister Khaled al-Fadhel told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Kuwait.
Fadhel affirmed that both Gulf states always agree in this regard but pointed that the resumption of oil production from the zone is a political issue that needs to be discussed at higher levels.
In October, Khaled al-Jarallah, Kuwait’s deputy foreign minister, said negotiations between Kuwait and Riyadh on the Neutral Zone issue were “very positive” and an agreement has been reached.
A source familiar with the Neutral Zone’s oil operations told Reuters that restarting production from the joint fields, once a final agreement has been reached, would be done in phases and would take months for output to return to its full capacity.
Fadhel also said that fossil fuel will remain the focus of global attention, as it is expected to constitute about 75 percent of the global energy by 2035 according to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
His remarks were made on Sunday during the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OAPEC) 103rd meeting held in Kuwait to discuss 2020 draft budget along with topics related to the current petroleum situation.
He confirmed that oil prices will remain stable after OPEC’s recent decision to reduce the production of 500,000 barrels of oil per day during the first quarter of 2020.
The Oil Minister praised OAPEC’s role played in bolstering Arab cooperation in various energy fields and ensuring progress and prosperity for its member states.
He stated that this meeting comes in light of many global developments in the oil and gas industry, the most recent of which was the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which had been recently held in Madrid.
