Onshore oil reserves in the Divided Zone, which is shared by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, remain “shut-in,” according to US oil company Chevron.

In a statement to MEED it said: “Oil production onshore Partitioned Zone is shut-in. We continue to monitor the situation.

“Saudi Arabian Chevron remains committed to the region and is focused on supporting operational activities to maintain readiness for production restart when that time comes.”

The latest statement echoes similar comments issued by Chevron in July.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have signalled that they are preparing to restart production in the Divided Zone.

In July, a report in Kuwait Times said Kuwaiti Oil Minister Bakheet al-Rashidi is due to meet his Saudi counterpart, Khalid al-Falih, in November to declare the resumption of production.

This report followed a statement from Japan’s Toyo Engineering on 2 July that said that Saudi Arabia and Kuwait would resume Divided Zone oil production in 2019. Toyo Engineering also said it had renewed a contract for work on the fields.

Earlier this month MEED reported that repairs to equipment and facilities at the Khafji oil field, which is located in the Divided Zone, have already started.

Production was halted at the Khafji field in October 2014. The stoppage was officially blamed on technical problems, but many industry insiders blamed a political spat between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

The Wafra field is also located in the Divided Zone and stopped production in May 2015 as contractors struggled to secure work and equipment permits.

If oil activities restart in the Divided Zone it could add hundreds of thousands of barrels a day (b/d) to global production, at a time when the US president Donald Trump is urging its allies in the Middle East to increase production in order to lower global oil prices.

The return of oil activities in the region could also see the revival of projects worth billions of dollars.

The stoppage of oil activities in the region forced the cancellation of a planned field development project called Wafra Joint Operations Heavy Oil, which was cancelled before the front-end engineering and design (feed) was completed. The project was being developed by Chevron in cooperation with Kuwait Gulf Oil Company (KGOC).

The first phase of this project was estimated to be worth $5bn and had a planned design capacity of 100,000 (b/d).

Another scheme that was being developed jointly by Chevron and KGOC, known as the Central Gas Utilisation Project, was also cancelled due to unresolved operational issues.

This project was estimated to be worth $1bn and would have collected gas that was flared at the Wafra Field.

In July, SNC-Lavalin Engineers and Constructors, a subsidiary of Canada’s SNC-Lavalin, signed a new five-year framework agreement to provide International General Engineering Services to oil assets in the Divided Zone.

The contract was awarded by Al-Khafji Joint Operations (KJO), a joint operations company between Aramco Gulf Operations Company and Kuwait Gulf Oil Company.

The scope of the new framework agreement is to provide engineering services to assist KJO with its projects, including new offshore platforms, jackets and subsea pipelines as well as upgrades to existing offshore platforms and jackets, onshore crude and gas handling facilities, gas pipeline networks, utilities, waste water treatment facilities, and instrumentation systems.

SNC-Lavalin’s Houston, Texas and Al-Khobar teams will carry out the work, supported by SNC-Lavalin’s global centres of excellence in London, Calgary and Mumbai.