Ship-tracking data reveals that at least four oil and gas tankers have reversed course rather than pass through the Strait of Hormuz, as a fresh wave of attacks on vessels in the critical waterway has raised serious safety and security alarms.
The turnarounds follow an incident Tuesday in which a Qatari liquefied natural gas tanker and a Saudi-flagged crude oil tanker were damaged near the strait. Reports indicate Iran fired missiles at ships in the waterway, prompting maritime authorities to elevate the threat level for vessels attempting to transit the area to “severe.”
Three LNG tankers — the Al Ghariya, Duhail, and Al Ruwais — had been slowly making their way westward toward the strait before each changed direction late Tuesday, according to data from analytics companies Kpler and LSEG. All three vessels, operated by QatarEnergy, were traveling empty and bound for Qatar’s Ras Laffan export facility to pick up cargo.
A fourth vessel, an Indian-flagged tanker hauling 2 million barrels of Kuwaiti crude loaded late last week, also made a U-turn near the tip of Oman at the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, according to data from LSEG and Kpler.
Since the conflict began in late February, at least 16 LNG cargoes from Ras Laffan and 10 from ADNOC’s Das Island terminal in the United Arab Emirates have successfully passed through the strait. However, those numbers represent only a small portion of the roughly 7 million metric tons that are typically shipped from both export hubs each month.
A backlog of empty vessels waiting to load at Ras Laffan has been growing, with more than 10 ships in the queue as of early July, according to analysts at Vortexa. The firm also noted that more than 50 vessels controlled by QatarEnergy and ADNOC are currently positioned across the Middle East Gulf, India, and the Malacca Strait, with some having switched off their Automatic Identification System tracking signals for more than 10 days.
Despite the turmoil, at least two crude oil tankers did manage to exit the strait. The supertanker Tenjun, managed by Nippon Yusen KK and carrying 2 million barrels of Qatari crude loaded in late February, passed through the Strait of Hormuz late Tuesday. Another supertanker, the Pertamina Pride — managed by Indonesia’s state energy company Pertamina — also exited the strait Tuesday with its transponder switched off, according to shipping data. That vessel is transporting 2 million barrels of Saudi crude loaded in early March.
Nippon Yusen declined to offer any comment regarding the Tenjun. Pertamina had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.
