KUWAIT: Kuwait's Oil Minister Dr Khaled Ali Al-Fadhel denied the content of an international news agency's report issued on Thursday which stated that Kuwait and other countries are debating whether they should roll over existing oil supply cuts into 2021, as they struggle to stick to their agreed reductions, according to OPEC and industry sources. "I am surprised at bringing Kuwait's name into this report", adding that "no Kuwaiti officials were contacted in connection with this report," Minister Fadhel, who doubles as Minister of Electricity and Water, said in a statement to the press

"Kuwait has supported this deal from day one, and has been one of the leading countries in terms of compliance with its agreed cuts in line with its longstanding history of impeccable compliance," said the Kuwaiti oil minister. He added "The production cuts were agreed to by all of us back in April 2020, and we all signed this agreement.

Kuwait fully supports the joint OPEC+ efforts to restore balance to the oil market, and going forward we will also support whatever necessary joint decisions will be agreed to under the OPEC+ framework." The minister stressed that there should be no doubt that "the established coordination with the Gulf countries will continue in this regard."

Oil exports to Japan down
In other news, Kuwait's crude oil exports to Japan in September declined 41.6 percent from a year earlier to 5.14 million barrels, or 171,000 barrels per day (bpd), for the sixth consecutive monthly drop, government data showed Friday. As Japan's third-biggest oil provider, Kuwait supplied 8.0 percent of its total crude imports, the Japanese Natural Resources and Energy Agency said in a preliminary report. Japan's overall imports of crude oil in September plummeted 22.6 percent year-on-year to 2.14 million bpd, down for the ninth straight month.

Shipments from the Middle East accounted for 90.5 percent of the total, down 0.8 percentage points from the year before. Saudi Arabia remained Japan's No.1 oil supplier, although imports from the kingdom fell 13.1 percent from a year earlier to 858,000 bpd, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 672,000 bpd, down 18.6 percent. Qatar ranked fourth with 161,000 bpd and Russia fifth with 73,000 bpd, respectively. Japan is the world's-third biggest oil consumer after China and the US. - KUNA