Half a dozen empty liquefied natural gas carriers are en route to Qatar in what may be a sign that QatarEnergy is preparing to restart loadings, Bloomberg has reported, citing ship-tracking data from Kpler.
The data showed six tankers with links to Iran currently located in the Gulf of Oman or approaching it, with another tanker recently crossing the Strait of Hormuz and heading for the Qatari coast, Bloomberg said.
QatarEnergy successfully sent an LNG cargo via the Strait of Hormuz at the end of July, three weeks after one of its LNG carriers was struck in the waterway, Bloomberg has reported, noting that the vessel had idled in the strait since early July but crossed it with its geolocation devices turned on. This, however, has not marked the resumption of LNG flows out of the world’s third-largest exporter.
Qatar has been eager to restart its LNG exports, after declaring force majeure following Iranian strikes on the Ras Laffan complex in the early days of the war with the United States and Israel. State firm QatarEnergy, which curtailed LNG output in early March before an LNG facility was hit by Iranian missiles in mid-March, told its customers in June that it could restore about 50% of its production capacity within a month after safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz is restored. Within two months, Qatar could return 80% of its capacity, Bloomberg reported at the time.
Two months later, traffic in Hormuz has not only not been restored, but attacks on tankers are back as Iran and the United States trade strikes. Qatar has continued loading LNG carriers, meanwhile, but has not sent any out of the Strait of Hormuz. The vessels are either sitting in the waterway or being sent to Kuwait, according to earlier reports based on ship-tracking data.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
