Kuwaiti oil price continues decline, drops to $114.32

25/04/2012 04:28 AST

Price of Kuwaiti crude oil dropped 61 US cents to 114.32 US dollars per barrel on Monday compared to USD 114.93 pb on Friday, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) said on Tuesday.

The fall of the Kuwaiti crude price was attributed to forecast rise of reserves of the American crude to highest level in 11 months.

Meanwhile, Kuwait's crude oil exports to China in March increased at the sharpest pace in 17 months, up 79 percent from a year earlier to 1.3 million tons, equivalent to around 308,000 barrels per day (bpd), latest official data showed.

Kuwait's exports saw the fourth straight month of growth and the biggest jump since October 2010 when it marked 170.1 percent expansion, according to the Chinese General Administration of Customs.

As China's sixth-biggest supplier in March, Kuwait provided 5.5 percent of the Asian country's total crude oil imports, compared to a 3.4 percent share in the same month of last year and 4.1 percent in February.

China's overall imports of crude oil in March rose 8.7 percent year-on-year to 5.57 million bpd.

Saudi Arabia remained China's top supplier although its shipments fell nine percent from a year earlier to 934,000 bpd, followed by Angola with 859,000 bpd, up 25.0 percent.

Russia became third with imports from the country jumping 47.8 percent to 546,000 bpd. Meanwhile, China slashed its oil imports from Iran by 54.1 percent to 254,000 bpd.

Kuwait has been in talks to build a 300,000 bpd refinery in the southern Chinese city of Zhanjiang with Sinopec and French oil giant Total as part of its aim of more than doubling crude exports to China to 500,000 bpd.

Agencies