Oil-rich Kuwait is drawing up plans to ensure it meets its oil exports if neighbouring Iran closes a sea route that is critical to Gulf oil producers, a senior Kuwaiti official said yesterday.

Saad al-Shuwaib, chief executive of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, the state oil company, told the Kuwait news agency that "precautionary plans" to export crude if the Strait of Hormuz was closed were in place, but not yet finalised.

On Saturday, the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard - the country's elite military force - was quoted as saying that if Iran was attacked it would impose controls on the Strait of Hormuz. ... Read full article