Qatar Moves Four LNG Carriers Through Hormuz in a Week, the Most Since Early July

At least four LNG carriers went through the Strait of Hormuz in the past week, two heading out loaded and two coming in empty. One of the loaded ships is bound for India's west coast. Four ships in a week would have been an ordinary morning before the war. Right now it's the highest count in more than two months.

Before February 28, Qatar sent about three LNG cargoes a day through Hormuz. The strait carried roughly a fifth of the world's LNG supply, nearly all of Qatar's exports and the UAE's as well. Qatar has no pipeline route around it. Every molecule from Ras Laffan leaves by ship, and every ship leaves through Hormuz.

How the LNG trade broke

When the strait closed, LNG shipping reacted faster than almost any other market. In the first days of March, spot charter rates for LNG carriers jumped by record amounts. Atlantic rates hit $161,750 a day, 3.7 times the level of the previous Friday. Pacific rates rose about 250 percent. Qatar's storage at Ras Laffan could hold only about four days of normal production, so once ships stopped leaving, output had to stop too.

The spring was a slow restart. In June Qatar began bringing empty carriers back into the Gulf through Hormuz, betting that the June 17 US-Iran memorandum would hold. Exports picked up during the short mid-June to mid-July window.

Then the window shut. In early July a Qatari LNG ship was struck in the strait. By August 3 a second carrier with Qatari LNG had been hit, and QatarEnergy's force majeure widened. At the end of August the company extended cargo cancellations into November.

Who filled the gap

Mostly the United States. US LNG exports rose 23 percent in the first half of 2026, helped by new liquefaction capacity coming online. Those cargoes go to Europe and increasingly to Asia, on much longer voyages than Ras Laffan to Tokyo or Mumbai. Longer voyages tie up more ships. For LNG carrier owners who spent 2025 worrying about too many new ships, that's been a lifeline.

Buyers still paid for the shortfall. Asian spot LNG prices hit a five-month high in August as the Hormuz stalemate dragged on. Europe's gas benchmark roughly doubled in the first week of March before easing.

South Asia has had it hardest. India and Pakistan built their LNG import plans around cheap, close Qatari supply. India's fertilizer plants run on that gas, and the shortage has forced record fertilizer imports. The cargo heading to India's west coast this week matters more than one ship usually would.

Ready to restart

Qatar's energy minister, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, says Ras Laffan, the world's largest LNG export plant, can get back to normal output "within a couple of weeks" once Hormuz reopens. The plant isn't damaged. It's shut in.

That's the key difference between LNG and oil in this crisis. Saudi Arabia and the UAE can push some crude around the strait through pipelines. Qatar can't. Its exports depend fully on the strait being passable, and right now that means a few escorted or permitted transits a week, with no guarantee the next ship won't be hit.

For LNG shipping, this week's four transits are a small positive signal. Owners with ships near the Gulf will be watching whether Qatar can turn four a week into four a day. Until it can, the global LNG fleet keeps running long-haul Atlantic cargoes, and buyers in Asia keep paying for the distance.