Saudi Arabia has started reducing oil production as the near-blockage of the critical Strait of Hormuz starts filling storage tanks, according to a person familiar with the matter, even as it rushes to reroute some supplies through the Red Sea.
The cuts by the kingdom, the world’s biggest oil exporter, follow the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq. Some of the countries have been preemptively turning production lower so as not to overwhelm storage too quickly and avoid a complete shutdown of output.
The war in the Middle East that’s entered its second week has all but closed Hormuz to maritime traffic from around the Persian Gulf, with mostly only Iranian supply going through. The near-standstill has clogged up exports, sending oil above $100 a barrel and risking a spike in global inflation.
Kuwait said Saturday that it has cut oil production and refining output because tankers cannot transit the Persian Gulf due to threats from Iran.
The Arab monarchy did not say how many barrels per day it has cut, but described the output reduction as a precautionary measure that will be “reviewed as the situation develops.”
Kuwait is the fifth-largest oil producer in OPEC. It produced about 2.6 million barrels per day in January.
The state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation said it “remains fully prepared to restore production levels once conditions allow.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/07/kuwait-oil-cut-iran-war-strait-hormuz.html
Iraq’s oil production has dropped by roughly 60% as the ongoing Iran war disrupts tanker availability and effectively blocks exports through the Strait of Hormuz, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
According to the report, Iraq is currently producing about 1.7 million to 1.8 million barrels per day, down sharply from around 4.3 million barrels per day before the conflict began.
The decline reflects the growing logistical bottleneck in the Persian Gulf, where the war has sharply reduced the number of tankers able to load crude. With fewer vessels available to transport oil, regional producers have been forced to cut output as storage capacity fills up.
Iraq was the first major Gulf producer to reduce oil production because of the conflict, Bloomberg said. The United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have since followed with output cuts of their own as the disruption spreads across the region.