Kuwait's once prosperous oil sector has stood largely paralysed for months, with petroleum exports plummeting as fighting raged across the Gulf -- triggering the country's largest crisis in decades.
Half a year into the war, Kuwait remains a hostage to its uncompromising need to access the Strait of Hormuz -- where the war between the US and Iran has choked off the once plentiful energy exports that moved across its waters.
Oil has long been the bedrock for the tiny Gulf state's economy -- where more than 90 percent of government revenue and nearly all export earnings rely on reliable crude sales. The country is also home to roughly six percent of total oil reserves globally.
Unlike Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait has no pipelines bypassing the strait -- forcing its crude exports to sail through the contested waterway to the international market.
"Without a doubt, this is the toughest and biggest crisis that we have faced in the oil sector in Kuwait since the 1990 invasion by Iraq," said Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) chief executive Shaikh Nawaf Saud Al-Sabah.
