Yemen and Kuwait started a two-day meeting on Monday looking at ways to increase cooperation, focusing on exploration and production of oil and gas as well as training for oil workers.

The meetings are taking place in Kuwait and are being attended by the Undersecretary of Yemen’s Oil and Minerals Ministry Shawqi al-Mekhlafi and the Acting Undersecretary of Kuwait’s Oil Ministry, Nawal al-Fuzai.

Talking to the Yemen News Agency (SABA) ahead of the meetings Al-Mekhlafi said his delegation would seek to attract Kuwaiti investment in Yemen’s oil sector.

Unrest and fighting among separatists, jihadists and the government have made maintaining oil operations in Yemen increasingly difficult over recent years, weighing on production.

Since peaking in 2002 at 439,000 barrels a day (b/d), production has steadily declined, to around 100,000 b/d.

The government earned just $671m from exporting crude in January-May, according to a statement released on 9 July, nearly 40 per cent less than in the same period in 2013.