Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) issues a tender offering refined petroleum—reported as naphtha cargoes—for buyers to collect from Kuwaiti ports located deep inside the Persian Gulf. Bloomberg reports this is the first such tender in months, and it signals that Gulf producers are preparing to increase production and product shipments as activity around the Strait of Hormuz grows. The prior approach during the Hormuz crisis involved Kuwait asking buyers to charter tankers themselves to lift cargoes, according to traders cited by Bloomberg.
The developments come amid shifting claims and counterclaims over whether the Strait is open to commercial traffic. Some reporting links the tender to attempts by the United States and Iran to move toward a 60-day arrangement for safe passage, while other accounts say Iran has claimed the strait was closed again after Israeli strikes in Lebanon. At the same time, traders and officials point to large volumes of oil still being held up in the region and say Kuwait is working to restore output—potentially toward prewar levels—once regular international shipping to Kuwaiti ports resumes.
