Kuwait Petroleum Sells Crude to Asia After Al-Zour Refinery Outage

State-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation has sold some crude to Asia following an unplanned outage at its Al-Zour refinery, traders and analyst said on Thursday.

KPC sold crude, including Kuwait Heavy Crude and Eocene grade, for prompt delivery to Asian buyers via rare tenders, the people said. The volume and buyers were not immediately clear.

Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company on October 21 shut down parts of its 615,000 barrel-per-day Al-Zour refinery due to a fire, and all the units are tentatively expected to restart by November 7, according to industry monitor IIR.

The offers came as Indian refiners seek alternatives after they paused Russian oil buying following U.S. sanctions imposed last week on top Russian oil producers.

"Rare Kuwaiti spot tenders were absorbed by Asia this week," said Richard Jones, a crude oil analyst at Energy Aspects.

"Asia, in part, had covered for lower Russian buying with the Basrah and West African overhangs, but that buffer has now gone."

The Middle Eastern spot premiums jumped on Thursday after a sharp drop earlier this week.