Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE are operating a record number of drilling rigs, bucking the industry trend at a time of low oil prices. But the reasons behind this latest rush to drill are not uniform nor are they likely to result in an immediate rise in production capacity. If anything, a dispute between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia over the Neutral Zone has taken more than 500,000 b/d of capacity off markets and volumes are not expected to be restored from the 300,000 b/d offshore Khafji oil field until 2017 at the earliest, MEES understands.