Few tankers enter Hormuz to load oil, LNG floating storage rises, data shows

No liquefied natural gas tankers have been visible passing through the strait since Thursday. Tankers and other vessels have sometimes shut off transponders to mask their passage.

The combined 10-day moving average of laden LNG transits through the strait fell to just 0.2 cargoes per day by July 15 from roughly 0.8 cargoes per day in late June, vessel tracking data from S&P Global Energy showed.

Only one LNG cargo is known to have exited the Gulf in the past week, the data showed.

However, LNG production and vessel loadings at Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have continued at a relatively robust pace despite the disruption to outbound shipping, S&P Global analysts said in a note, leading to a growing inventory of LNG aboard tankers waiting inside the Gulf.

Seven laden Qatari LNG carriers were estimated to be holding around 0.57 million metric tons of LNG as of mid-July while nearly 1.9 million tons of LNG tanker capacity is currently positioned inside the Gulf - the equivalent of around eight days’ worth of typical pre-war peak exports from the two projects, according to S&P Global.