科威特石油公司CEO：霍尔木兹海峡恢复通行后产量将立即回升至战前水平

We are talking about all of this, uh, potential discussions of maybe some sort of de-escalation of conflict that is now well into its eighth month. The Strait of Hormuz shut down for most of that time, and now we're starting to see Iran start to hit a lot more targets further south of that in the Gulf of Oman. And that has affected your shipments in and out of Kuwait. What measures have you taken to try to find alternative routes?

I mean, we have started since the beginning of this conflict. We have made clear to our customers around the world that we will do everything possible to ensure that shipments continue to our customers when the Strait did not have any passage going through. We used our trading arm and we we used, uh, our disposal, everything at our disposal to make sure that alternative shipments made it to our customers. Now that shipping is going through.

Uh, we are committed to raising our production, uh, as high as as we can to, uh, accommodate the requirements of our customers. So we are working through the strait and looking into the future will look into alternatives such as pipelines. Are the ship to ship transfers that you've been doing? Is that still? Actually that is something that is continuing, that is working. We've been able to move our production from, uh, almost nothing really, uh, during the height of the, of the crisis, uh, to well over 2 million barrels a day.

And our, uh, fields and our facilities are resilient. They can handle that. The, uh, what is missing right now is additional security for ships to transit through the strait so that we can raise our production to what it was before this crisis began at 2.7 million barrels a day. When you say that you're meeting your obligations, that 100% of what your customers are asking for, they're getting, or you still having to sort of make concessions on the crude side, we are on the crude oil side.

We are exporting, uh, basically what we had been doing before the war began. We're meeting the requirements of our customers on crude oil. It's on, uh, product where shipping is more constrained for products. And that's where we had to, uh, uh, restrain, uh, some of our, uh, refining capacity on that. Uh, and you're seeing that result in international diesel and, uh, jet fuel prices. One of the biggest, uh, refineries in the world that produces jet and diesel is actually in Kuwait.

We need more, uh, uh, product carriers to come into the into the Gulf, uh, to carry that product out. So is the main constraint on the refined products right now, getting the tankers that you need or getting a safe escort of those tankers in and out. It's both because, uh, once you have safe escort, uh, more and more tankers from the international community will come. What we're doing right now is using our strategic tanker fleet to shuttle, uh, crude and product out through the strait, do ship to ship, transfer outside and move it to our customers outside.

Uh, you've taken some damage to some of your tankers because we have war. Have you been able to repair and replace those in an efficient manner? We have, uh, we're doing everything we can, uh, to move, uh, the shipments out that that is replace that is, uh, repairing. Uh, the tankers that have been hit. Uh, some of those are back in service. Others are in the process, uh, going through drydock. Have you asked the U.S. military for more help on the naval side?

Uh, the U.S. military has been, uh, fantastic in supporting us all the way through. Uh, it was very clear to us from the beginning that there is nothing that is 100% effective, that we will continue. We will absorb some hits, but it is a risk that we are taking. But we're also asking the international community, asking our customers, uh, to bear a greater portion of that responsibility. Uh, and move ships to work with us on the, uh, on the risks that we're taking.

Why haven't we seen that yet? You're starting to see that, um. In fact, uh, our customers are now, um, coming into the Gulf, uh, supporting us with, uh, with the shipping and, uh, starting to collect product from Kuwait. Are these primarily customers in Europe and Asia? Uh, these customers are in Asia. Uh, we're asking our European customers to do the same, and they're working with their with their governments to ensure that they can come up through the Gulf.

I know that you're not actually involved in any sort of peace negotiations, but there's been a lot of rumors about a potential de-escalation. Uh, are you aware of any progress on that front? I'm not aware of that. Uh, what we do is we, uh, ensure that we can get as much of our shipments out, uh, to to our customers. And, uh, we let the politicians sort out the rest. If there was a deal any time soon, how quickly could you ramp up production and, more importantly, delivery of that production back up to that 2.6, uh, barrels that we saw prior to the war?

Immediate. I mean, our facilities are available, uh, ready to work. Our, uh, fields are more resilient than ever. This is a testament to not only Kuwait's, uh, ability, but CPC's ability, uh, to produce we. What? The only thing that's missing, honestly, is an exit, uh, route, uh, for for product. Um, you've talked about, uh, refined products already being a critical levels. There has been, uh, some relief that Kuwait has actually taken credit for with regard to getting some of that product back to market.

How involved were you in, uh, getting that diesel and the other refined products? So we're absolutely we're prioritizing getting these products out into the market, especially because, uh, diesel and jet fuel is facing a severe shortage. And as I said, a lot of that shortage is due to the fact that you have about 6 million barrels of refining capacity inside the Gulf. Uh, much of that is being restrained because of the inability to move it safely out.

Uh, the pipelines that exist through Saudi Arabia and, uh, the Emirates are crude. So that's why you're seeing a relatively muted reaction on crude prices, but a huge reaction, uh, on product prices, because there's simply not enough, uh, product moving into the market. Well, your involvement certainly allowed for the European, uh, release of their reserves. Have you been asked to do more by the United States to get more refined products Here we are working with our ego as partners, uh, to move as much as we can.

We? The point remains that, uh, there is no substitute for safe transit through the Strait of Hormuz. Uh, that needs to be restored as quickly as possible. Uh, once that happens, you will have, uh, product moving at a much brisker face. Uh, long term, there has been a lot of talk about finding alternatives to the Strait of Hormuz. Uh, I know there has been a lot of talk about studying export pipelines, uh, that you've been in with Saudi Arabia as well as the UAE.

Are those talks still going on? How much are you making? Absolutely. We're making a lot of progress on those. But again, pipelines can only carry crude, uh, at this point. So you can solve for one portion of the problem, but you cannot solve for the fact that not only that 20% of the world's crude goes through the Strait of Hormuz, you can do pipelines around it, but you can't do pipelines for the product that that is missing the 6 million or more barrels of refined product that goes through.

You're also missing 20% of the world's LNG has to go out on ships. It can't go out on pipelines. It's got to go through the strait. And finally, somewhere between a third quarter to a third of the world's fertilizer comes through the strait. That's got to come out ships. And that's just from the energy side, not counting commercial goods and everything else. So there is no substitute for safe passage through the Strait of.

Well, with regards to crude in that pipeline, though, if there was some sort of concrete deal with regards to the situation in Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, do those pipeline plans then get p