Kuwait To Start Exporting Oil From Border Fields For First Time In 5 Years - Minister

Kuwait to Start Exporting Oil From Border Fields for First Time in 5 Years - Minister

Kuwait will begin to export crude oil to Asian markets from fields it operates together with Saudi Arabia in the neutral zone for the first time following a 5-year suspension, Oil Minister Khaled Ali Al-Fadhel told the KUNA news agency on Friday

DOHA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd April, 2020) Kuwait will begin to export crude oil to Asian markets from fields it operates together with Saudi Arabia in the neutral zone for the first time following a 5-year suspension, Oil Minister Khaled Ali Al-Fadhel told the KUNA news agency on Friday.

Earlier in the day, Al-Fadhel said that Kuwait supported Saudi Arabia's call to hold an emergency meeting of oil-producing countries to stabilize the crashing market.

"The Kuwait Petroleum Corporation in cooperation with the national Kuwait Gulf Oil Company will send the first crude oil tanker as a result of their joint development of the shared al-Khafji field, five years after the suspension of oil production there," Al-Fadhel said.

The official added that the amount of oil that would be transferred to the Asian markets after its loading on April 4-5 would be around a million barrels.

The minister also said that this tanker would be followed in the coming days by another one from Al-Wafra oil field, and that this step "was consistent with Kuwait's intent to increase oil production after the completion of the OPEC deal on March 31."

On Thursday, US President Donald Trump said he had discussed with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman the situation in the global energy market, suggesting that Riyadh and Moscow could reduce production by a total of 10-15 million barrels per day.

In December, the oil ministers of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia signed an agreement on the division of the neutral zone between the two countries, which allowed them to return to the joint oil production at shared fields in this area, after a five-year dispute on the matter.