Qatar and the UAE are rerouting damaged LNG tankers via ship-to-ship transfers to keep gas flowing to buyers worldwide, in emergency operations that add more than $1 million per transfer and up to 35 hours of additional sailing time as the ongoing war continues to affect traffic through the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.
Three LNG cargoes loaded in Qatar and the UAE were transferred between vessels off Oman and the UAE in August before continuing to buyers in Asia, according to ship-tracking data from Kpler and Vortexa.
Two of the three transfers involved vessels that had previously been damaged or involved in incidents.
The QatarEnergy-run Al Rekayyat, which was struck by a projectile near Hormuz in July, transferred its cargo to the Qatari tanker Tembek off the UAE coast. Tembek later delivered the LNG to India.
GasLog Shanghai, which was involved in an incident while leaving Hormuz in late July, later transferred its cargo to GasLog Savannah off Oman.
