The Saudi Arabian–Kuwaiti neutral zone, also known as the Divided Zone, was an area of between the

borders A border is a geographical boundary. Border, borders, The Border or The Borders may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * ''Border'' (1997 film), an Indian Hindi-language war film * ''Border'' (2018 Swedish film), ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

and

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

that was left undefined when the border was established by the Uqair Convention of 2 December 1922. According to

Daniel Yergin Daniel Howard Yergin (born February 6, 1947) is an American author, speaker, energy expert, and economic historian. Yergin is vice chairman of S&P Global. He was formerly vice chairman of IHS Markit, which merged with S&P in 2022. He founded Ca ...

, "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

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and A ...

s, 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." In the area, which was later called the "Neutral Zone" or "Divided Zone", the Uqair Convention stated that "the Government of

Najd Najd ( ar, نَجْدٌ, ), or the Nejd, forms the geographic center of Saudi Arabia, accounting for about a third of the country's modern population and, since the Emirate of Diriyah, acting as the base for all unification campaigns by the H ...

and Kuwait will share equal rights until through the good offices of the Government of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

a further agreement is made between Najd and Kuwait concerning it". However, there was little interest in a more definitive settlement in the so-called "Neutral Zone" until the discovery, in 1938, of oil in the Burgan (Burqan) of

. With the possibility of oil discovery within the "Neutral Zone" itself, concessions were granted in 1948–1949 by each government to

Aminoil The American Independent Oil Company, commonly known as Aminoil, was a United States oil exploration and production company, incorporated in 1947.Pacific Western Oil Corporation Pacific Western Oil Corporation was a holding company for the stock of the Pacific Western Oil Company. History In 1928, Pacific Western Oil was founded to acquire the oil producing properties and undeveloped oil properties in California of Petr ...

. Oil was discovered in March 1953. Later the two countries exploited the oil under a joint operating agreement. In 1957, Saudi Arabia signed a concession agreement with the Japanese-owned Arab Oil Co., and Kuwait signed in 1958. That concession expired in 2000. The company made its first offshore discovery in January 1960. The partitioning negotiations commenced shortly after the rulers of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia met and decided, in October 1960, that the Neutral Zone should be divided. On 7 July 1965, the two governments signed an agreement (which took effect on 25 July 1966) to partition the Neutral Zone adjoining their respective territories. A demarcation agreement dividing the Neutral Zone was signed on 17 December 1967 but did not formally take effect until the exchange of instruments and signing which took place in Kuwait on 18 December 1969. 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 ISO 3166 is a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) that defines codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, special areas of geographical interest, and their principal subdivisions (e.g., ...

code since it was partitioned before the adoption of ISO 3166 in 1974. The area was quickly, but briefly, overrun during the

First Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

by the 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 half-century gone, oil pumping is still done by agreements. 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 1 billion cubic feet of gas and 84,000 barrels of LNG per day.

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* *
U.S. Army Map Sheet NH38-16 1:250.000
(map sheet with western part of former Neutral Zone) {{DEFAULTSORT:Saudi-Kuwaiti neutral zone Kuwait neutral zone History of Kuwait Disputed territories in the Persian Gulf Territorial disputes of Saudi Arabia Kuwait–Saudi Arabia border Kuwait–Saudi Arabia relations Demilitarized zones 1922 establishments in Asia 1970 disestablishments in Asia

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References

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