Kuwait strike may be the saviour The OPEC member’s production dropped to 1.1 million barrels a day, Saad Al-Azmi, deputy chief executive for finance and spokesman at Kuwait Oil Co., said in posts on Instagram and Twitter on Sunday when workers walked off the job. Kuwait Petroleum Corp., the parent company for KOC and other operating units, will continue providing fuel to the local market and can meet demand from international customers for exports, it said on Twitter.
Kuwait is among Middle Eastern oil producers that are cutting spending and benefits to plug holes that the oil-price drop of nearly 30 percent in the past year has punched in government budgets. Prices have fallen as rising output from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other suppliers has created a global glut. Kuwait produced 2.81 million barrels a day last month, making it OPEC’s fourth-largest member, while worldwide supply exceeded demand by 1.6 million in the first quarter, according to the International Energy Agency.
‘Shocking’ Decline
The plunge in Kuwait’s output “is just shocking,” Edward Bell, a commodities analyst at Dubai-based bank Emirates NBD PJSC, said Sunday by phone. “That would take care of the surplus right there. There could be quite a bit of upside in oil tomorrow.”