Production from the joint Kuwaiti-Saudi oil field al-Khafji is expected to surpass 100,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) by the end of April and reach 175,000 bbl/d by the end of the year, a senior Kuwaiti oil official told Reuters.
Gulf OPEC producers Saudi Arabia and Kuwait agreed last year to end a five-year dispute over the shared Neutral Zone area, allowing the resumption of output at two jointly run fields—Khafji and Wafra—that can pump up to 0.5% of world oil supply.
“The total production of the two fields by the end of this year will reach 320,000 bbl/d,” said Abdullah Mansi Al-Shammari, deputy CEO of finance and management at Kuwait Gulf Oil Company.
The Neutral Zone is expected to reach full output capacity of 550,000 bbl/d before the end of 2021, he told Reuters late on March 10.
Trial production of 10,000 bbl/d began at Khafji last month and appears to be ramping up at a faster pace than first expected. Last month, an official said the field would be pumping 60,000 bbl/d by August.
Al-Shammari said Khafji was currently producing about 70,000 bbl/d. “It is scheduled to cross 100,000 by the end of April, to reach 175,000 bbl/d by the end of 2020,” he said.
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had agreed that trial production of 10,000 bbl/d at Wafra would begin in April, he said, adding the field would produce 145,000 bbl/d by the end of the year.
Asked if the firm had been instructed to accelerate output, Al-Shammari said the company was moving according to the agreed schedule under the joint production plan.
Saudi Arabia has announced it would raise oil output to a record high in April and boost production capacity after the collapse on Friday of a deal between OPEC and some other oil producers—notably Russia—on output curbs that had propped up prices since 2016.
Khafji is operated by Al-Khafji Joint Operations Co., a joint venture between Kuwait Gulf Oil Company and AGOC, a subsidiary of state oil giant Saudi Aramco. U.S. oil major Chevron Corp. operates Wafra on behalf of the Saudi government.
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