Kuwait raised July oil output to help ease market

KUWAIT:OPEC-member Kuwait joined Gulf Arab neighbour Saudi Arabia to boost oil outputin July to help meet rising demand and tame soaring prices, although Kuwait hassince trimmed output.

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia pledged to boostoutput in July to its highest level in 27 years in July. The kingdom hostedemergency talks between consumers and producers in late June to address recordfuel costs, and called on other producers with spare capacity to boost output.

Kuwait responded, pumping at 2.8 million barrels per day (bpd), Saadal-Shuwaib, the chief executive of state oil firm Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC),told Reuters on Monday.

But the world's seventh-largest oil exporterhas since pulled back to around 2.5 million bpd, he said, the lowest rate sinceApril according to official data.

"It was a move by some OPECmembers to ease the market and meet required demand," Shuwaib told Reuters.

U.S. crude hit a record above $147 a barrel in July buthas since fallen to around $115 a barrel.

The pause in the rally hasalleviated political pressure that oil exporters have faced from consumers.Record fuel costs have triggered global protests this year and stoked inflation.

The sharp fall in oil prices from July's peak has prompted some ofthe more hawkish members of the Organization of the Petroleum ExportingCountries (OPEC) to talk of reducing supply. OPEC is the source of over a thirdof the world's oil.

Iran's Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari saidthat he expected OPEC to work on preventing the falling trend in prices at itsnext meeting on Sept. 9. Nozari has previously said producers would need todiscuss observance of the group's informal output targets if the price continuedto fall.

Saudi Arabia has pumped well above its target in June andJuly.

Venezuela's Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said at the weekendthat OPEC may cut output at its next meeting if recent price declines continue.

ADVERTISEMENT

After having trimmed output, Kuwait has spare capacity of 200,000 to300,000 barrels per day, Shuwaib said on Monday.

Kuwait last pumpedat around 2.8 million bpd in February, according to the country's officialmonthly submissions to OPEC and the Joint Oil Data Initiative (JODI) Database.