Kuwait's oil production reached 1.971 million barrels per day in July

Shipping data showed that Gulf states’ exports of crude oil and condensates remained largely stable in July, staying roughly 40% below pre-war levels, with signs of a slowdown emerging in the second half of the month as fighting in the region intensified again.

Relatively stable export levels helped ease concerns about more severe supply disruptions and offset declines in global oil inventories.

However, tanker traffic through key maritime routes in the Middle East, such as the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandab, remained far below pre-war levels preceding the US-Israeli war on Iran that began on February 28. Data from Kpler indicated that crude oil and condensate exports from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq, Kuwait, and Iran rose by just 2% from June, averaging 10.7 million barrels per day in July.

Data from Kpler and Vortexa showed that exports ranged between 12 million and 13 million barrels per day in the first half of the month before slowing as fighting resumed between Iran and the United States. Iraq doubled its exports from June, contributing to the overall increase alongside higher flows from Kuwait and Iran, while shipments from Saudi Arabia and the UAE declined.

George Morris, an analyst at Vortexa, said that nine additional loading operations for large crude oil tankers boosted Iraqi exports in July, despite a slowdown in flows through the Strait of Hormuz amid escalating hostilities.

At least 14 vessels reported to the International Maritime Organization that they were attacked in the region during July, up from eight in June.

A source familiar with the matter told Reuters that higher exports enabled some producers to increase output, with Kuwait raising its crude oil production to 1.971 million barrels per day in July from around 1.65 million in June. However, Amin Nasser, CEO of Saudi Aramco, said on Tuesday that the world had lost more than 2.6 billion barrels of oil since the war began, and that replenishing inventories would take about 18 months at a rate of 2.1 million barrels per day, even if the Strait of Hormuz were reopened immediately.

Saudi crude oil exports from the Red Sea port of Yanbu slowed last month as the Iran-aligned Houthi group in Yemen escalated its attacks near the Bab al-Mandab strait.

Data from Energy Aspects showed that loading operations at Yanbu fell to 3 million barrels per day after July 20, compared with 3.8 million barrels per day from April to June. Richard Bruns, co-founder of Energy Aspects, said that many tankers loading oil at Yanbu had switched off their Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders, while other vessels altered their routes through the Suez Canal and increasingly used the Suez-Mediterranean (Sumed) pipeline, which connects the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, to avoid the Bab al-Mandab strait.