Eight of 13 LNG vessels near Qatar sailing with AIS off

Market: Freight, Natural gas
15/10/26

A total of 13 LNG carriers were at or offshore Qatar's 64.2mn t/yr Ras Laffan LNG export terminal today, according to satellite imagery from Copernicus, despite AIS ship-tracking data from Vortexa showing only five carriers offshore Ras Laffan.

This is up from 11 carriers holding offshore Ras Laffan on 5 October, indicating several inbound transits via the strait of Hormuz despite a ramp up in ship attacks around Hormuz this month. Eight of the 13 carriers were not sharing their location today, up from six out of 11 on 5 October.

Two of the 13 carriers were loading at Ras Laffan today without broadcasting their location. The 13 carriers do not include the 216,000m³ Al Sahla, which was today docked at the Ras Laffan shipyard.

Of the 13 carriers, seven are Q-Flex class of around 210,000-216,000m³, three are Q-Max class of 266,000m³, two are conventional sized carriers with a capacity of around 150,000m³ and one is a 174,000m³ two-stroke carrier, judging by the length of each vessel in the satellite image. This is a total carrying capacity of around 2.78mn m³.

Transits via the strait have held strong relative to summer levels so far this month, supported in large part by an uptick in Qatari transits.

There have been 11 carriers that have turned their AIS transponders back on so far this month after a likely transit via the strait of Hormuz, according to Argus tracking.

The most recent transit is the 165,000m³ Seapeak Arwa, which turned its AIS on offshore Sri Lanka today, having been dark over the past month. The carrier was chartered by QatarEnergy for Hormuz transit, market participants said.

A further seven carriers have departed anchorages in the Gulf of Oman, having spent at least 24 hours anchored, suggesting they may have received a cargo via transshipment, although this is unable to be verified.

Four of the seven carriers have sailed to anchorages offshore Pakistan's Port Qasim or India's Mundra, both of which host LNG import terminals. The other three carriers immediately went dark in the Gulf of Oman, sailed south in the Indian Ocean, and signalled for Sri Lanka.

By Martin Senior

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