Chevron CEO Mike Wirth has indicated that his company is ready to help compensate for outages in Saudi Arabia by restarting production at an oil field on the Saudi-Kuwaiti border. In an interview with CNBC on September 17, he said Chevron would not need much time to bring the area known as the partitioned zone back on stream.
The U.S. major has been working with Kuwait Gulf Oil Co. to develop the partitioned zone, which is capable of producing around 500,000 barrels per day. However, the license area was taken off line for more than four years, owing to disputes between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and has remained idle ever since.
Even so, it could resume production soon. Kuwaiti officials indicated in July that they were close to striking a deal with Saudi Arabia, and Wirth told CNBC that Chevron would take action if asked to do so by both countries.
He also pointed out that the September 14 aerial attacks on Saudi Arabia had drawn attention to the geopolitical and security hazards that the oil industry faces. “These events demonstrate that these risks are real,” he commented.