Kuwait Petroleum Company said Thursday it will take 10 to 12 weeks to restore full oil output after the Strait of Hormuz reopened, a timeline that threatens to prolong high crude prices, feed inflation fears, and shift the ground under crypto markets. The estimate, released mid-morning local time, lands as traders already weigh the Federal Reserve's next move on interest rates — a calculation that gets harder if energy costs stay stubbornly high.
The oil-crypto link that matters
Rising crude prices tend to push headline inflation higher, which historically pressures central banks to hold off on rate cuts. For crypto, that's a problem: low rates have been a tailwind for speculative assets, including bitcoin and ether. If the Kuwait outage keeps oil above $90 a barrel for months, the rate-cut timeline that many crypto bulls were banking on could slip into 2027.
What Kuwait Petroleum actually said
In a brief statement, the state-owned producer said it expects output restoration to take 10 to 12 weeks following the reopening of the Hormuz strait. The company didn't specify the exact volume lost or the nature of the damage. The Persian Gulf chokepoint was closed for about 72 hours earlier this week, forcing several Gulf producers to shut in production as a safety measure.
Why 12 weeks matters for digital assets
Prolonged high crude prices don't just dent consumer spending — they also make energy-intensive bitcoin mining more expensive. Miners in the Middle East, who rely on cheap associated gas and subsidized power, may see margins compress. Meanwhile, traders in the broader crypto market are watching the same macro indicators as everyone else: if the Fed stays hawkish, risk assets often take the first hit.
The timing
This estimate drops into a market already on edge. Bitcoin has been hovering around $67,000 after a choppy May, and the Fed's next rate decision is due June 18. Any fresh inflation signal from the oil patch could reshape the narrative before that meeting. For now, the clock is ticking — and 10 to 12 weeks is a long time in crypto.
