By: OrePulse

Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) is considering buying additional tankers, including vessels dedicated to refined products, as the state oil company works to restore crude exports to pre-crisis levels while shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains constrained, the company's chief executive said.

KPC Chief Executive Officer Sheikh Nawaf Saud Al-Sabah said Kuwaiti crude output has recovered to more than 2 million barrels per day, up from levels near zero at the height of the regional conflict that disrupted Gulf shipping. Reaching the pre-crisis benchmark of 2.7 million barrels per day, he said, will depend on additional security measures for vessels transiting the strait.

"We export essentially the same level we exported before the war began, and we meet all of our customers' commitments from it," Al-Sabah said, referring to crude oil shipments. Exporting refined products has proven more difficult, he said, adding that strengthening Kuwait's capacity to move those products out of the country is now a priority.

Kuwait has no overland pipeline connecting its oil fields to a port outside the Strait of Hormuz, leaving the country dependent on tanker shipments for all of its crude and refined-product exports. Al-Sabah said Kuwait's fields and production facilities retain the flexibility to raise output further, and he noted that the country operates one of the world's largest refineries, producing volumes of diesel and jet fuel large enough to influence global diesel prices.

KPC's managing director for global marketing, Sheikh Khaled Al-Sabah, said in earlier remarks that Kuwait needs more product tankers calling at the Gulf to carry refined products to buyers in the coming period. He said KPC is examining the purchase of new vessels, along with other transport and storage options, to strengthen the company's control over its shipping.

Trade data illustrate the toll that Hormuz-related disruptions have taken on Kuwait's seaborne crude exports. Those exports fell 38 percent month-on-month in September to about 738,000 barrels per day, a decline of roughly 458,000 barrels per day, the data showed. That left September exports down about 47 percent from the same month a year earlier, when they stood at roughly 1.4 million barrels per day. For the first nine months of 2026, Kuwait's average seaborne crude exports were about 726,000 barrels per day, down 46 percent from an average of roughly 1.3 million barrels per day over the same period of 2025.

Kuwait Oil Tankers Company (KOTC), KPC's shipping arm, currently operates a fleet of 31 vessels, according to company data: 11 very large crude carriers, 13 product tankers, five LPG carriers and two bunkering vessels. Any new tankers KPC acquires would add to that fleet as the company seeks to rebuild export capacity curtailed since the conflict disrupted shipping through the strait.