Kuwait, Qatar to Lower Crude Oil Shipments in January

By Nesa Subrahmaniyan

Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Kuwait and Qatar will reduce crude oil shipments to customers in January as part of production cuts implemented by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, three traders at Asian refiners said.

State-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corp. will end an option for Asian refiners to receive as much as 5 percent more crude oil than their contracts stipulate as OPEC reins in output to reduce a glut, said the traders who received the notices.

The agreements will be amended with effect from January, keeping an option for customers to take as much as 5 percent less than the contracted volume, the traders said, asking not to be identified because of confidentiality agreements.

OPEC, supplier of about 40 percent of the world’s oil, agreed to cut output by 1.5 million barrels a day starting in November and is scheduled to meet in Oran, Algeria Dec. 17 to discuss whether production needs to be curtailed further.

State-owned Qatar Petroleum will cut exports to Asian customers by 5 percent below their contracted volumes, the traders said.

Kuwait pumped 2.55 million barrels of crude oil a day in November, and Qatar’s output was 830,000 barrels a day, according to production estimates compiled by Bloomberg News.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nesa Subrahmaniyan in Singapore at nesas@bloomberg.net