(April 20): Kuwait declared force majeure on shipments of crude oil and refined products as the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz makes it impossible to meet obligations to customers that can’t bring vessels into the Persian Gulf.
State-run Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) notified customers last Friday that it was invoking the contractual clause that allows a supplier to miss deliveries, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg News. The move doesn’t mean supplies will come to a complete halt, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
KPC didn’t immediately respond to a request for comments.
The Iran war has brought Hormuz traffic to a near-standstill, causing storage tanks in the region to fill up and upending global oil markets. The virtual shutdown of the critical waterway is a nightmare scenario for Persian Gulf countries, which rely on energy-export revenues to fund public spending.
Countries across the region have had to reduce output of oil, gas and refined products as a result of the Hormuz shutdown and Iranian strikes. Earlier this month, the US government estimated that more than nine million barrels a day of oil production would be shut in during April.
Kuwait has suffered multiple hits to oil infrastructure, and output is now at levels last seen in the early 1990s after the Iraqi invasion. Full production will take time to recover once hostilities ease, potentially meaning a continued impact on exports, the person familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information.
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Kuwaiti officials have said they could return output to prewar levels within a few months of an end to the conflict.
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