Qatari LNG tanker heads to Poland via Red Sea — OilPrice
A liquefied natural gas tanker from Qatar is heading north through the Red Sea to Poland to deliver a cargo to Europe via the Suez Canal. Such a route is rare for Qatari LNG due to threats to shipping in the southern Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, OilPrice reports.
According to vessel-tracking data cited by Bloomberg, the tanker loaded LNG in Qatar in August. Its destination is Poland. State-owned QatarEnergy has a long-term contract to supply liquefied gas with Polish energy group Orlen, as well as agreements with other European buyers.
Supplies from Qatar
According to OilPrice, after the start of the war with Iran, the Strait of Hormuz was closed, and attacks damaged Qatar's Ras Laffan gas liquefaction complex, the world's largest facility of its kind. QatarEnergy continued to extend force majeure on supplies monthly, first declared in early March.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
The publication notes that the recovery of Qatari LNG exports is significantly lagging behind the pace of recovery in Middle Eastern crude oil exports. Most LNG carriers pass through the Strait of Hormuz in a mode that makes them difficult to track and complicates the assessment of global flows and the supply balance.
A shorter but dangerous route
Individual cargoes from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have managed to pass through the Strait of Hormuz in recent weeks, but their volumes remain insufficient to significantly affect the global LNG balance. Liquefied gas flows through the strait are still more than 75% below the level seen before the war with Iran.
The shortage of Qatari gas is accompanied by declining LNG demand in Asia amid high prices. In Europe, according to OilPrice, gas storage facilities are 74% full this week, while during the same period last year and over the previous five years the figure exceeded 86%. Passage through the Suez Canal may speed up cargo delivery compared with the route around the Cape of Good Hope.
