The 138,058m³ Marigold LNG recently made a dark exit through the strait of Hormuz and is now declaring for arrival at the 5mn t/yr Chhara import terminal in the western Indian state of Gujarat on 9 October, according to shiptracking data.
The vessel is delivering a prompt LNG cargo for Indian state-controlled Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL), with an original delivery window of 8 October, market participants said. The cargo was transacted at around low-$24/mn Btu, they added.
The vessel has historically loaded from the UAE's 5.6mn t/yr Das Island terminal, but it most recently loaded from the now-64.2mn t/yr Ras Laffan on 29 September, according to shiptracking data from Kpler.
The Marigold LNG last went dark on 24 September and was also one of the vessels listed as "non-compliant" for transit through Hormuz by Iran's Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) on 24 August.
This is likely the first LNG carrier to successfully transit the strait of Hormuz this week with its Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponder turned off.
A second LNG carrier, the 216,200m³ Mesaimeer, has gone dark since 23 September just offshore the city of Muscat in Oman. It turned on its AIS transponder on 7 October, and is shown to be laden and offshore India, Kpler data show.
A total of five laden LNG carriers have made dark exits through the strait of Hormuz over the past week, Argus notes, similar to a week earlier.
These two latest transits implied that dark transits of LNG carriers through the strait of Hormuz are still taking place despite the risk of being struck. The 159,800m³ Maran Gas Mystras was likely struck in the strait of Hormuz as recently as 5 October.
