Kuwait – Mubasher: Kuwait has lost 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) of its export capacity of crude oil since the output-cut in January to about 2.7 million bpd, according to Al-Anba Kuwait newspaper on Sunday.

Before 2017, Kuwait's export portfolio of crude oil was in the range of 2.3 million bpd and was reduced to 2 million starting January, the newspaper added.

The analysis indicated that Kuwait addressed many oil customers to balance contracts and delivery schedules to prevent the loss of any long-term contracts that may affect marketing quotas.

Kuwait’s overall production of oil dropped to 2.7 million barrels from 3.2 million barrels, while crude oil refining fell to 700,000 bpd.

Kuwait has lost an export capacity of 63 million barrels in seven months, according to the average price of Kuwaiti oil during that period, which was set at $49 per barrel, meaning that Kuwait lost about $3 billion due to its commitment to reduce production.

Kuwait's oil minister Essam Al Marzouq said that without the output reduction deal of members and non-members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the price of oil would have fallen below $25 per barrel.

By 2022, Kuwait seeks to cover the demand of free gas in winter via domestic resources, Al-Marzouq added.

In May, Saudi Arabia and Russia had announced in a joint statement that the crude oil production cut will be extended by OPEC from mid-2017 until March 2018.

OPEC countries in November agreed to cut oil output to 1.8 million bpd starting in January 2017 until June 2018 to face the fall of prices.