In April 2026, for the first time in more than three decades, Kuwait did not export a single barrel of crude oil, due to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, reports the specialized site for tracking oil shipments TankerTrackers.com.
According to reports, although Kuwait continues to produce oil, which is partly stored and partly processed into derivatives, some of which are exported, during April there was no export of crude oil, Al Jazeera reported.
This kind of situation has not been recorded since the end of the Gulf War in 1991, and it is a consequence of the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for transporting oil from the region.
Due to the naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which stopped the transportation of oil, the state company “Kuwait Petroleum Corporation” was forced to extend the state of force majeure on oil exports on April 17, Blumberg reported.
Kuwait has a maximum production capacity of about 3.2 million barrels per day, while before the crisis production was about 2.7 million barrels per day, and as CNBC writes, at the beginning of May production was reduced to about 1.2 million barrels per day.
Oil represents the basis of the Kuwaiti economy, making up about 50 percent of the gross domestic product, while revenues from oil exports provide approximately 90 percent of the country’s budget revenues, according to data from the World Bank.
