Four Oil and Gas Tankers Withdraw from Attempted Strait of Hormuz Transit

Tracking data revealed that a minimum of four oil and gas tankers aborted their attempts to pass through the Strait of Hormuz amid renewed assaults on vessels in the waterway and escalating security fears.

This change in route occurred after a Qatari liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker and a Saudi-flagged crude oil tanker sustained damage near the strait on Tuesday. Reports indicated that Iran fired missiles at ships in the passage, prompting maritime authorities to elevate the threat level for vessels traversing the strait to "severe."

Data from the analytics firms Kepler and the London Exchanges Group showed that the LNG tankers Al Ghariya, Dahl, and Al Ruwais—all operated by Qatar Energy—were moving slowly westward toward the Strait of Hormuz before diverting away late Tuesday. These three empty tankers were heading to Qatar’s Ras Laffan export facility to load shipments.

Simultaneously, information from the London Exchanges Group and Kepler indicated that an Indian-flagged tanker carrying two million barrels of Kuwaiti crude oil, loaded late last week, turned back near the Omani tip at the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday.

Since the outbreak of war in late February 2026, at least 16 LNG shipments from Ras Laffan and 10 shipments from Das Island, operated by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), have passed through the strait. However, this volume represents only a small fraction compared to approximately seven million tons shipped monthly from these two export hubs previously.

According to analysts at Fortexa, the number of empty vessels waiting to load at Ras Laffan surpassed ten in early July 2026.

Fortexa also reported that over 50 empty tankers belonging to Qatar Energy and ADNOC are dispersed across the Gulf, India, and the Strait of Malacca, with some having disabled their automatic identification systems for more than ten days.