Thousands of Kuwaiti oil workers began an open-ended strike yesterday in protest at plans to cut their wages, action which saw the state’s crude production plunge. A spokesman for the Kuwait Oil Co (KOC), Saad Al-Azemi, said on Twitter that “average production reached 1.1 million” barrels in Kuwait yesterday. Daily production in OPEC’s fourth largest producer is normally around 3.0 million barrels per day. Azemi also said natural gas production was at 620 million cubic feet, down from Kuwait’s daily average of more than 1.3 billion cubic feet. Refinery production was also cut from 930,000 barrels a day to just 520,000 barrels.
The strike comes as world oil producers gathered in Qatar aiming to negotiate an output freeze to boost prices. “Thousands of workers began their strike,” the oil workers union chief Saif Al-Qahtani said, adding that production had been partly halted but without clarifying which sites were affected. “Observed since 7:00 am (0400 GMT), this open-ended strike will continue until the workers’ demands are met,” Qahtani said.
The Cabinet strongly criticized the “unacceptable” strike, calling it a “clear violation of the law”, entrusting involved agencies with taking legal action against “unacceptable practices”, and with bringing to accountability anybody involved in the disruption of the country’s vital utilities. The government also urged Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) to mobilize the manpower needed to ensure continued production. KPC said it closed a petrochemicals plant in order to use the gas to supply power generation plants and insisted that domestic supplies and exports will not be affected.
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