Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman says he hopes Riyadh will be able to reach a deal with neighbouring Kuwait to resolve the sovereignty issues affecting oil production from the Neutral Zone “soon”.

The oil-rich Neutral Zone or Divided Zone lies on the border between the two countries and both sides are meant to share production from the Khafji oil field located there.

Production at the Khafji field came to a stop 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, also located in the Neutral Zone, stopped production in May 2015 as contractors struggled to secure work and equipment permits.

“It's part of the sovereignty issues that are stuck, unsolved, between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for the past 50 years. And they [Kuwait] want to fix it now before we continue to produce from that area,” Prince Mohammed told Bloomberg News in a recent interview.

“We think a 50-year-old issue is almost impossible to fix in a few weeks. So we're trying to have an agreement with the Kuwaitis to continue to produce for the next five to 10 years and at the same time, we work on the sovereignty issues,” he said.

Prince Mohammed, accompanied by the Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih, travelled to Kuwait to meet Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Sabah in the first week of October, with restarting production from the Neutral Zone a key agenda of their meeting.

“We are ready in Saudi Arabia, and now we're working with the Kuwaitis. We believe we can have something soon," Prince Mohammed told Bloomberg. "We're trying to convince the Kuwaitis to talk about the sovereignty issues, while continuing to produce until we solve that issue.

“The leadership of Kuwait really wants to move on that. We think that in just one department there [in Kuwait], they want to hold to the sovereignty issues before we move any further.

“The other department in Kuwait, they are supportive of what we are trying to say. It's good for Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, so I believe it's a matter of time until it's solved.”

MEED reported in August that repairs to equipment and facilities at the Khafji oil field had begun and that state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) had informally started to discuss the procurement of machinery parts with suppliers.

US energy company Chevron is a key operator in the Neutral Zone.

If oil activities restart in the Neutral Zone it could add hundreds of thousands of barrels a day to global production, at a time when the US president Donald Trump is urging his allies in the Middle East to increase production in order to lower crude oil prices.

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