Kuwait preparing for possible Hormoz closure
Published: Tuesday, July 01, 2008
14:04GMT—10:04AM/EST
KUWAIT – IRAN – GULF – OIL
Washington, 1 July (IranVNC)—Oil-rich Kuwait has drawn up precautionary plans to ensure it meets its oil exports if Iran closes the Strait of Hormoz, a vital waterway in the Persian Gulf that carries as much as 40 percent of the world’s crude oil.
“There are precautionary plans to export Kuwaiti crude in cooperation with the Gulf Cooperation Council [GCC] countries, but those plans are not finalized yet,” Saad al-Shuwaib, the Chief Executive Officer of state oil company, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, said yesterday, according to Kuwait Times.
The comments follow statements made on Saturday by the chief commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps [IRGC], Major-General Mohammad Ali Jafari, that Iran would use oil and its control of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormoz as a weapon if it were attacked.
There has been increased speculation about an attack on Iran after a report last month said that a massive Israeli military exercise held in early June was meant to send a warning to Iran that it had the capabilities for a long-range strike on the Islamic Republic.
The heightened tension between Israel and Iran is considered one reason why oil prices have hit record highs. Crude hit a new record of $143.54 a barrel yesterday. But any military tensions in the region will send the price of oil to $200 per barrel, al-Shuwaib said yesterday.
Former Kuwaiti oil minister Ali al-Baghli said his country would likely use an offshore facility near Oman that it used during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, when merchant shipping in the Persian Gulf came under attack, Kuwait Times reports.
And the commander of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, said yesterday that the US would not allow Iran to close the Strait of Hormoz. “They [Iran] will not close it … They will not be allowed to close it,” Vice-Admiral Kevin Cosgriff was reported by AFP as saying.
Sources: Kuwait Times, Agence France-Presse
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