Kuwait's crude exports are at levels seen before the US-Iran war, according to state-owned KPC chief executive Sheikh Nawaf al-Sabah.
Speaking to Bloomberg TV, Sheikh Nawaf said KPC, which oversees all Kuwait's hydrocarbons production, is meeting all its obligations to all of its crude customers.
"On the crude oil side, we are exporting basically what we had been doing before the war began," he said.
Kuwait's crude exports, including its share from the Saudi-Kuwaiti Neutral Zone, averaged around 1.45mn b/d in January-February, before the war and the disruptions to shipping through the strait of Hormuz. These pushed Kuwait's crude exports to near zero in April and May and led KPC to significantly scale back production.
Exports began to recover in June, as Kuwait, like several other Mideast Gulf producers, began delivering crude on its own tankers and selling through ship-to-ship (STS) transfers outside the strait of Hormuz. Kuwait's third-quarter crude exports averaged just below 1mn b/d.
Preliminary Kpler data show Kuwaiti exports at 884,000 b/d in the first three weeks of October, around 550,000 b/d below pre-war levels. Many tankers transiting the strait are doing do with AIS tracking switched off, so these numbers can be — and typically are — revised up.
The export increase has allowed Kuwait to lift its crude production to "well over 2mn b/d," Sheikh Nawaf said. Argus estimated Kuwaiti crude output in September at 1.79mn b/d.
Oil product exports are still below pre-war levels, Sheikh Nawaf said, primarily because of a lack of available tankers.
"On product, shipping is more constrained, and that's where we've had to restrain some of our refining capacity," Sheikh Nawaf said. "You're seeing the result of that in international diesel and jet fuel prices."
