Joint Operating Co. (JOC), a joint venture of Texaco Inc.'s Getty Oil Co. unit and Kuwait Oil Co., plans to resume production within the next few weeks from Wafra field in the Neutral Zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
Texaco said it is too early to know what initial production from the field will be. Facilities in JOC operated Wafra, South Fuwaris, and South Umm Gudair onshore oil fields were heavily damaged during the Persian Gulf war.
Industry sources last month suggested production from the three fields might resume at 40,000 b/d this month but said a return to the prewar production level of about 120,000 b/d will take a long time (OGJ, Jan. 13, p. 14).
In 1989, prior to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent embargo on oil exports from the two, production from the three fields was about 131,000 b/d. Combined production dropped to an average 78,540 b/d in 1990 in the wake of the embargo. Cumulative production from the three fields at yearend 1990 was more than 1.8 billion bbl of oil.
Late last year JOC let contract to Pool Arabia Ltd., a unit of Pool Energy Services Co., Houston, to help restore production in the field (OGJ, Dec. 9, 1991, p. 45). Pool was to have begun the project early this year using four land workover/drilling rigs.
OFFSHORE NEUTRAL ZONE
Meantime, the Japanese operated Arabian Oil Co. (AOC) has pushed production from Khafji and Hout fields off the Neutral Zone to about 300,000 b/d, just short of the prewar level of 310,000 b/d.
AOC, working with Japan National Oil Corp., agreed to conduct of study on developing a deep oil reservoir near the two fields that is said to have estimated reserves of 4 billion bbl of oil (OGJ, Feb. 10, p. 40).
The companies are expected to begin a $31 million exploration program this year.
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