KUWAIT: Kuwait’s revenues dropped by one fifth in the first 11 months of the fiscal year due to the decline in global oil prices, according to figures released by the finance ministry yesterday. Revenues of the OPEC member reached KD23.2 billion until the end of February from to 28.9 billion dinars in the same period last year-a fall of 19.7 percent. The decline is mainly due to a 27.4 percent dive in oil revenues from 27 billion dinars last year to 21.2 billion dinars. Oil income still represented 91.4 percent of total public income.
Oil lost around 60 percent of its value since June due to oversupply, with a strong dollar and a weak global economy dampening demand. Price of Kuwaiti oil averaged well above $100 a barrel last fiscal year but is currently hovering around $50. Kuwait’s fiscal year runs from April through March.
Revenue figures for March have not yet been published. Despite the sharp drop in revenues, the Gulf state posted a provisional budget surplus of 9.9 billion dinars and it is expected to end the year with a windfall for the 16th consecutive year. Kuwait calculated the price of oil last fiscal year at $75 a barrel but reduced the figure to $45 a barrel in the current 2015/2016 fiscal year, which began Wednesday. As a result, the emirate is projecting a deficit of $24 billion. Sustained surpluses since 2000 have boosted fiscal reserves of the country’s sovereign wealth fund to around $550 billion, according to unofficial estimates.
Exports to China Meanwhile, Kuwait’s crude oil exports to China in February more than tripled, or rose 263.8 percent from a year earlier to 1.04 million tons, equivalent to around 273,000 barrels per day (bpd), government data showed. Kuwaiti shipments of crude oil to China exceeded 200,000 bpd level for the sixth consecutive month since September, according to the General Administration of Customs. China’s overall imports of crude oil rose 10.8 percent in February on the year to 25.53 million ton (6.69 million bpd).
Saudi Arabia remained China’s top supplier in the reporting month, with its shipments slightly increasing 1.8 percent to 1.15 million bpd, followed by Angola with 812,000 bpd, down 16.6 percent. Russia became third but imports from the country declined 1.5 percent to 703,000 bpd. Iraq ranked fourth and Oman fifth, respectively. The State-run Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) signed a 10-year crude supply deal with China’s top energy trader Unipec in August, the biggest-ever sales contract in KPC’s history by volume and revenues in all regions. Under the landmark agreement, the KPC supplies Unipec 300,000 bpd of crude oil, with a strong possibility of increasing the volume to 400,000 bpd.
