Stormy weather: a sandstorm engulfs a bridge in Kuwait
Sandstorm puts stop to Kuwait exports
Opec member Kuwait halted crude and oil product exports this morning due a sandstorm and bad weather, a spokesman for state refiner Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) said.
Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia had no interruptions in its crude flow from its main terminal in Ras Tanura, a shipping agent told Reuters.
"All oil exports were stopped early morning on Thursday due to bad weather," KNPC's Mohammad Mansour al-Ajmi told Reuters. "We are monitoring the weather conditions."
Kuwait, which sits on 10 percent of global oil reserves, pumped around 2.24 million bpd in March, according to an Opec survey.
Kuwait exports about 2.1 million barrels per day of combined crude and oil products. About 1.4 million bpd of exports are crude, and around 700,000 bpd are oil products. Most exports go to Asia.
Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil exporter and Ras Tanura is the world's biggest offshore oil facility with capacity to load between 5.5 million bpd and 6 million bpd of oil.
"There is a dust storm, it's windy, but operations are going on as normal," the shipper said.
Oil product exports from Saudi's Jubail refinery in the refinery were also unaffected, a third shipping source said