State-owned QatarEnergy has extended the force majeure on LNG deliveries to Asia and Europe by another month through the end of November, as LNG cargo traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains largely blocked amid the protracted U.S.-Iran stalemate over the chokepoint and pathways to end the war.
Qatar’s energy giant, which was the world’s second-largest LNG exporter before the war, has notified customers in Bangladesh and Pakistan, as well as at least one buyer in India and Italy’s Edison that the force majeure on deliveries has been extended to the end of November, from end-October previously, sources with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg on Monday.
The force majeure for Edison has been extended to early December, the Italian gas and energy supplier said.
Last month, Qatar had extended the force majeure for deliveries to Edison until early November, but the protracted blockage of LNG shipments at the Strait has prompted another month of extension of the force majeure.
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%, Reuters calculations showed last month.
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, per data from data intelligence firm ICIS cited by Reuters.
Despite the fact that some LNG cargoes from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have recently transited the Strait of Hormuz or engaged in ship-to-ship transfers outside the Strait offshore Oman, the volumes are only a fraction of what Qatar exported before the war.
Unlike oil, it is much more difficult to shuttle-ship LNG through Hormuz and then reload the gas via a ship-to-ship (STS) transfer as Persian Gulf producers have been doing in recent months to ship oil to customers with alternative methods and routes.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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