Qatar's state-owned QatarEnergy has extended its force majeure on LNG deliveries to customers by several weeks as LNG flows at the Strait of Hormuz remain blocked despite increased oil flows.
This week, QatarEnergy notified buyers in Pakistan and Bangladesh that LNG cargo cancellations would continue through October.
Some previously planned deliveries to Europe under long-term deals have also been cancelled beyond September, with Edison of Italy stating that the force majeure and cargo cancellations were extended into early November.
At the end of July, Edison reported that QatarEnergy had cancelled an additional three LNG cargoes, with the force majeure period extended through September.
As of July 28, a total of 24 LNG cargoes for delivery to Edison were subject to force majeure since April, representing a total volume of approximately 3 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
This force majeure period has now been extended beyond September as LNG traffic at the Strait of Hormuz remains at a standstill, even though oil flows are estimated to have rebounded in recent weeks.
However, unlike crude oil, LNG cannot be shuttle-shipped through Hormuz and then reloaded via a ship-to-ship (STS) transfer as Persian Gulf producers, including Qatar, have been doing in recent months to ship oil to customers with alternative methods and routes.
Six months since the Iran war crippled Qatar’s LNG exports via the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s second-largest liquefied natural gas exporter has lost $24 billion in sales as exports tumbled by as much as 96%.
The number of LNG cargoes that Qatar has managed to export crashed to just 18, down from 509 cargoes shipped from Qatar in the same period of last year.
