At least four oil and gas tankers have turned back from attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz, ship-tracking data showed, as renewed attacks on vessels in the critical waterway heightened safety and security concerns.
The diversions come after a Qatari liquefied natural gas tanker and a Saudi-flagged crude oil tanker were damaged near the strait on Tuesday following reports that Iran fired missiles at ships in the waterway, prompting maritime authorities to raise the threat risk for transiting vessels to "severe."
The LNG tankers Al Ghariya, Duhail and Al Ruwais were inching westward towards the Strait of Hormuz before changing course to turn away late on Tuesday, data from analytics firms Kpler and LSEG showed. All three tankers controlled by QatarEnergy were empty and heading towards Qatar's Ras Laffan export facility to load cargoes.
LSEG and Kpler data also showed the Indian-flagged very large crude carrier (VLCC) Lila Vadinar, which is carrying two million barrels of Kuwaiti crude that was loaded late last week, made a U-turn off the tip of Oman at the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday.
At least 16 LNG cargoes from Ras Laffan and 10 from Abu Dhabi National Oil Company's (ADNOC) Das Island terminal in the United Arab Emirates have exited the strait since the conflict began in late February.
But this is still a fraction of the roughly seven million tonnes on average typically shipped from both export hubs each month. A queue of ballast, or empty, vessels waiting to load at Ras Laffan has also built up.
The latest satellite imagery from July 7 shows 14 LNG tankers anchored offshore Ras Laffan, with one vessel, Umm Al Amad, at the terminal loading at the time the image was captured, said Laura Page, insight manager for LNG and natural gas at Kpler.
The imagery also indicates that three vessels waiting offshore Ras Laffan have their Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders switched off, she said.
Over 50 QatarEnergy- and ADNOC-controlled ballast vessels are stationed around the Middle East Persian Gulf, India and the Strait of Malacca, with some switching off their automatic identification system signals for more than 10 days, Vortexa added.
Still, at least three stranded crude oil tankers managed to exit the strait. The VLCC Mercury Hope, with two million barrels of Emirati crude loaded in early March, exited the strait on Wednesday, LSEG and Kpler data showed. The ship's manager Anglo Eastern Maritime did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The VLCC Tenjun, managed by Nippon Yusen KK and carrying two million barrels of Qatari crude loaded in late February, exited the Strait of Hormuz late on Tuesday.
The VLCC Pertamina Pride, managed by Indonesia's state energy firm Pertamina, also exited the strait on Tuesday, with its transponder switched off, shipping data showed. The vessel is carrying two million barrels of Saudi crude loaded in early March.
Nippon Yusen declined to comment on the Tenjun tanker. Pertamina did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Additionally, Indian refiner Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals has cancelled a vessel charter it had booked for loading crude oil from Iraq, two shipping sources with knowledge of the matter said.
(Reporting by Emily Chow and Florence Tan; Additional reporting by Yuka Obayashi in Tokyo; Fransiska Nangoy in Jakarta and Nidhi Verma in New Delhi and Marwa Rashad in London; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)