Tokyo — The Khafji oil field in the Partitioned Neutral Zone shared by SaudiArabia and Kuwait is being prepared to restart production in 2019, Japan'sToyo Engineering said Monday.
Toyo has agreed to a third renewal of its general engineering servicesagreement, originally signed in 2002, with Al-Khafji Joint Operations,operator of the Khafji and Hout oil fields located in the neutral zone, itsaid.
KJO is owned 50:50 by Aramco Gulf Operations Co. and Kuwait Gulf Oil Co.
Under the GESA, which will remain valid until 2023, Toyo said it willsupport KJO on the project planning feasibility study, FEED and technicalsupport for operations of the oil fields.
"Maximum oil production rate of the fields is 350,000 b/d," Toyo said."Because of oil price recovery, KJO starts the preparation work tore-produce the oil from the fields from 2019," it added.
Kuwait oil minister Bakheet al-Rashidi told the Kuwaiti National Assemblyon June 26 that production had been stopped in the offshore Khafji andonshore Wafra fields for "technical" reasons, and would restart as soon as anagreement with Saudi Arabia was reached.
"We are working with the Saudi side to address these technical reasonsand soon we will return to production," Rashidi was quoted as saying by theKuwait News Agency.
Operator Saudi Aramco unilaterally shut production from the 300,000 b/dKhafji field in October 2014, citing new government emission standards for gasflaring. The onshore Wafra field, operated by KGOC and Saudi Arabian Chevron,stopped pumping in May 2015.
Sources in Kuwait, however, told S&P Global Platts earlier thatfacilities at both fields have been mothballed, so restarts at the fieldscould take months.