Kuwait cuts crude supplies by 5%

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CUTTING BACK: Kuwait will reduced its supplies by 5 percent from November. (Getty Images)

OPEC member Kuwait has notified term customers in Asia it would reduce their crude oil supplies by 5 percent from November, industry sources said on Friday.

The cut followed similar action this week by other OPEC members, in line with a decision by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries last week to lower its production ceiling from November by 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd).

A market source close to the Kuwait Petroleum Corp. said the cuts would take effect from early November and would continue into December.

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Most Asian customers have already fixed their loading schedules for November and the sudden cut surprised some lifters who had hoped the cuts would start from December.

Sources with Asian term lifters said they had received the full contracted volumes from Kuwait until October.

Earlier this week, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC), the state-run firm for the UAE's key oil producer Abu Dhabi, said it would reduce its November and December export volumes by between 5 and 15 percent, with some grades cut more deeply than others.

Nigeria's state oil firm said on Thursday it would reduce crude oil export volumes by 5 percent in November and December following OPEC's production cut.

Many traders have predicted the agreed OPEC cuts would come mainly from top exporter Saudi Arabia, which said at the OPEC meeting in Vienna last week it would reduce its output by 466,000 bpd.

Saudi Arabia is expected to notify its customers of changes to allocations over the coming days. (Reuters)

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