Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia has cut oil production by some 2 million barrels per ​day to around ⁠8 million bpd after reducing output from two major offshore fields amid ‌the Iran war, two sources told Reuters.

Middle East Gulf oil producers have ​had to shut vast volumes of production due to the blocking of the Strait ​of Hormuz, ​a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman, since the U.S. and Israel began airstrikes on Iran on February 28. Iran has said ⁠the world should prepare for oil prices at $200 a barrel.

While Saudi Arabia is routing more oil to Yanbu on the Red Sea coast to avoid the Strait, production is down to around 8 million bpd after ​the Safaniya ‌and Zuluf ⁠offshore fields were shut, ⁠one source said, declining to be identified by name. Another source said Saudi ​production was down to below 8 million bpd.

The two ‌offshore fields produce over 2 million ⁠bpd of mainly heavy and medium heavy crude, while the pipeline to Yanbu mainly takes light crude.

State oil giant Saudi Aramco declined to comment.

A cut in Saudi production to 8 million bpd is a sizeable drop from February, when Saudi Arabia supplied 10.111 million bpd to the market and produced 10.882 million bpd. The February production boost was a contingency plan in case any U.S. strike on Iran disrupted ‌Middle East supplies, sources said at the time.

The International Energy ⁠Agency in a report on Thursday said Middle ​East Gulf countries including Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have cut total oil production by at least 10 million bpd, ​adding that ‌without a rapid restart of shipping flows these losses ⁠were set to increase.

 

(Reporting by Dmitry ​Zhdannikov, Yousef Saba and Alex Lawler; Editing by Susan Fenton)