Six empty LNG tankers are heading to Qatar
Six empty liquefied natural gas tankers are heading to Qatar, which may indicate that QatarEnergy is preparing to resume LNG loading. OilPrice reports, citing Bloomberg and data from vessel-tracking service Kpler.
Tanker movements
According to Bloomberg, six vessels linked to Iran are in or approaching the Gulf of Oman. Another tanker recently passed through the Strait of Hormuz and is moving toward Qatar's coast.
At the end of July, QatarEnergy successfully delivered one LNG cargo through the Strait of Hormuz, Bloomberg reported. This happened three weeks after one of the company's gas carriers was struck in the strait. According to the outlet, the vessel had been there since early July but crossed the strait with its geolocation devices switched on.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
Exports through the Strait of Hormuz
The shipment of one cargo did not mean the resumption of LNG flows from Qatar, the world's third-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas. According to Bloomberg, Qatar declared force majeure after Iranian strikes on the Ras Laffan complex at the start of the US and Israeli war with Iran.
State-owned QatarEnergy reduced LNG production in early March, even before Iranian missile strikes on an LNG facility in the middle of the month, Bloomberg writes. In June, the company told customers that once safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz was restored, it would be able to restore about 50% of its production capacity in approximately one month and 80% in two months.
Two months later, vessel traffic through the strait had not resumed, and amid reciprocal strikes by Iran and the United States, tanker attacks were again reported. At the same time, according to preliminary vessel-tracking data, Qatar continued loading LNG tankers but did not send them out through the Strait of Hormuz: the vessels either remained in the strait's waters or headed to Kuwait.
