The diversions occurred after a Qatari liquefied natural gas tanker and a Saudi crude oil tanker were damaged near the strait on Tuesday, following reports of Iran firing missiles at ships in the area. This led maritime authorities to elevate the threat level for vessels transiting to “severe.”
LNG tankers—Al Ghariya, Duhail, and Al Ruwais—were seen moving westward toward the Strait of Hormuz before altering their paths and turning back late on Tuesday, according to data from analytics firms Kpler and LSEG. All three tankers, operated by QatarEnergy, were empty and en route to Qatar’s Ras Laffan export facility to pick up cargoes.
In addition, LSEG and Kpler’s data revealed that an Indian-flagged tanker, which had loaded 2 million barrels of Kuwaiti crude late last week, made a U-turn off the coast of Oman at the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday.
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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 passed through the strait. However, this number is still only a small portion of the approximately 7 million metric tons typically shipped monthly from both export points.
A backlog of ballast or empty vessels waiting to load at Ras Laffan has also formed, exceeding more than 10 ships in early July, according to analysts at Vortexa.
Over 50 ballast vessels controlled by QatarEnergy and ADNOC are stationed in the Middle East Gulf, India, and the Malacca strait, with some having turned off their Automatic Identification System signals for over 10 days, Vortexa noted.
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Despite these challenges, at least two crude oil tankers successfully left the strait. The VLCC Tenjun, managed by Nippon Yusen KK and carrying 2 million barrels of Qatari crude loaded in late February, exited the Strait of Hormuz late on Tuesday.
Similarly, the VLCC Pertamina Pride, managed by Indonesia’s state energy firm Pertamina, also navigated out of the strait on Tuesday, with its transponder turned off, according to shipping data. The vessel is transporting 2 million barrels of Saudi crude loaded in early March.
Nippon Yusen declined to comment on the Tenjun tanker, while Pertamina did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
