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.
Renewed Attacks
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.”
LNG tankers – Al Ghariya, Duhail and Al Ruwais – have all been inching westward towards the Strait of Hormuz before changing course to turn away late on Tuesday, showed data from analytics firms Kpler and LSEG. All three tankers controlled by QatarEnergy were empty and heading towards Qatar’s Ras Laffan export facility to load cargoes.
Meanwhile, LSEG and Kpler data also showed an Indian-flagged tanker, carrying 2 million barrels of Kuwaiti crude loaded late last week, made a U-turn off the tip of Oman at the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday.
Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
