The Saudi Arabian–Kuwaiti neutral zone, also known as the Divided Zone, was an area of between the borders of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait that was left undefined when the border was established by the Uqair Convention of 2 December 1922.

According to historian Daniel Yergin, "The Neutral Zone was the two thousand or so square miles of barren desert that had been carved out by the British in 1922 in the course of drawing a border between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. In order to accommodate the Bedouins, who wandered back and forth between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and for whom nationality was a hazy concept, it was agreed that the two countries would share sovereignty over the area."

The Uqair Convention stated that "the Government of Najd and Kuwait will share equal rights until through the good offices of the Government of Great Britain a further agreement is made between Najd and Kuwait concerning it".

There was however little interest in a more definitive settlement in the Neutral Zone until the 1938 discovery of oil in the Burgan (Burqan) area of Kuwait. With the possibility of oil within the Neutral Zone itself, concessions were granted by Kuwait in 1948 to the American Independent Oil Company and in 1949 by Saudi Arabia to the Pacific Western Oil Corporation, the two companies cooperatively explored and developed the zone. Oil was discovered in March 1953 and the reservoirs were of significant size. The company made its first offshore discovery in January 1960. Ratification followed on 18 January 1970, and the agreement was published in the Kuwaiti Official Gazette on 25 January 1970.

The zone was never assigned an ISO 3166 code since it was partitioned before the adoption of ISO 3166 in 1974. But for example in trade journals of the oil industry it was treated separately like a country.

The area was quickly, but briefly, overrun during the First Gulf War by Iraqi forces in 1991 after they invaded and occupied Kuwait; however, Coalition forces composed of American and Saudi contingents repelled the Iraqi offensive and liberated the area and the rest of Kuwait.

Despite the zone being partitioned half a century ago, oil pumping is still done by agreements.

Oil industry

The conclusion of the negotiations between American Independent and the Kuwaiti government was announced on July 6, 1948. Ralph Davies, former head of the Petroleum Administration for War, created during World War 2 to orchestrate the U.S. domestic petroleum industry, negotiated on behalf of American Independent. The terms were not disclosed officially and were reported as $7,000,000 initial bonus, $600,000 per year, 15% of profits and a 33-35 cents per barrel royalty.

Geologist Paul T. Walton on behalf of Western Pacific Oil negotiated with King Ibn Saud in the Shepheard's Hotel in Cairo. The concession was granted for a $9.5 million initial bonus, 55 cents per barrel production royalty with a minimum of $1 million to be paid each year (corresponds to 1,818,182bbl) and a 25% interest in net profits.

The two companies on June 30, 1949, signed an agreement amongst themselves for the first phase which involved the drilling of 4 holes to a depth of 5,000 ft and signed a further agreement on February 14, 1950, for a phase of seismographic and core drilling work.

The headquarters for the exploration crews was a refurbished Landing Ship, Tank, LST 1014, renamed MV Aminoil. The conversion was carried out by Levingston Shipbuilding Company in Orange, Texas from June 15 till September 30, 1949. The ship and the 3,000 tons of cargo represented an investment of $2 million. With the arrival of this mobile base camp via the Suez Canal in the Persian Gulf at the end of November 1949, exploration in the neutral zone commenced. The first drilling location was 25 miles inland on the border with Kuwait, in proximity to the prolific Burghan field.

During 1950, three dry holes were drilled. Wafra No. 1 was spudded on December 11, 1949, and completed at 5,020 ft on February 4, Wafra No. 2 was spudded 2 miles west of No. 1 on February 22 and abandoned at a depth of 5,250 ft on June 9. Wafra No. 3 reached 5,000 ft on October 20. In this early phase a fourth well, Fuwaris No. 1 also found nothing. In the meantime a comprehensive geophysical campaign was underway and in March 1952 the fifth wildcat (Al Hazaim) was spudded closer to the coast, but abandoned as a dry hole at 7,429 ft by June 1952. and what appears to have been a gamble to drill early concurrently with geophysical work had not paid off.

Wafra No. 4 was the discovery well. It was spudded on February 10, 1953, and on March 17, 1953, struck oil at 3,470 ft and was completed at 3,620 ft. The first shipment (92,000bbl) of oil sailed aboard the Tsuruoki Maru on January 13, 1954, bound for the 14,000bpd refinery of the Daikyo Oil Co. in Yokkaichi (Japan). At which time there were 2x73,000bbl storage tanks completed.

! Destination !! 1954 !! colspan=2 | 1955 !! colspan=2 | 1956 !! colspan=2 | 1957

|-

! !! !! Aminoil !! PacWes !! Aminoil !! Getty !! Aminoil !! Getty

|-

| USA || 4,148,027 || 1,424,836 || 1,407,069 || 243,971 || 3,284,005 || 739,152 || 12,580,231

|-

| Japan || 1,190,438 || 904,725 || 1,483,257 || 3,680,054 || 1,023,803 || 4,887,678 || 189,317

|-

| Italy || 174,988 || 1,473,739 || || 1,496,564 || || 2,424,976 || 313,132

|-

| France || 117,139 || 443,377 || 1,094,113 || || 1,587,211 || 134,515

|-

| Germany || 70,117 || 132,758 || colspan=5 |

|-

| Egypt || colspan=4 | || 112,974 || || 896,105

|-

| Netherlands || colspan=5 | || 531,387 ||

|-

| Total || || 4,379,435 || 3,984,439 || 5,420,589 || 6,017,993 || 8,717,708 || 13,978,785

|-

| Total || 5,700,709 || colspan=2 style="text-align: center" | 8,363,874 || colspan=2 style="text-align: center" | 11,438,582 || colspan=2 style="text-align: center" | 22,696,493

|}

{| class="wikitable defaultright"

|+ Wells completed

! Year !! Oil !! Gas !! Dry !! Wildcats !! Feet

|-

| 1950-1952 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 5 || ca. 32,000

|-

| 1953 || 4 || 0 || 0 || 1 || 20,635

|-

| 1954 || 11 || 0 || 3 || || 56,391

|-

| 1955 || 13 || 0 || 2 || || 58,754

|-

| 1956 || 26 || 0 || 3 || || 83,985

|-

| 1957 || 46 || 0 || 8 || 0 || 110,390

|-

| 1958 || 37 || 0 || 12 || 0 || 102,424

|-

| 1959 || 40 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 104,267

|-

| 1960 || 80 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 202,038

|}

2020s oil and gas discoveries

In December 2022, Saudi Aramco and Kuwait Gulf Oil Company signed a Memorandum of Understanding to jointly develop the Durra gas field, located in the neutral zone. The development aims at producing of natural gas and 84,000 barrels of LNG per day.

On 26 May 2025, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait announced a new discovery (500bpd of 26 to 27 API gravity) 5 kilometers north of Wafra field.

See also

  • Geography of Kuwait
  • Geography of Saudi Arabia
  • Kuwait–Saudi Arabia border
  • Kuwait–Saudi Arabia relations
  • Saudi Arabian–Iraqi neutral zone
  • Unification of Saudi Arabia

References

  • U.S. Army Map Sheet NH38-16 1:250.000 (map sheet with western part of former Neutral Zone)