🔶Bloomberg: Qatar uses old tankers with lights off to pass through the Strait of Hormuz

According to Bloomberg, six months after the start of the war in the Persian Gulf and the near halt of Qatar’s liquefied natural gas exports following an attack on one of the country’s tankers, Doha has found a new way to resume exports and pass through the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz.

Based on interviews with dozens of traders and informed officials, in late summer executives at QatarEnergy used one of the oldest tankers in their fleet, named “Al Rayyan.” With a security guarantee from the U.S. Navy, the tanker crossed the Strait of Hormuz with lights off and without location beacons, and on 20 Shahrivar (10 September) it transferred its cargo in the port of Sohar, Oman, to the modern and newly built vessel “Al Mashabiya” for shipment to China.

After the success of this ship-to-ship transfer operation (which is extremely complex and costly for liquefied gas at a temperature of minus 162 degrees), during the following four weeks about 20 other tankers also left Hormuz, and the level of cargo deliveries reached by late Shahrivar fell to one-third of the pre-war period; a pace that even surprised customers such as India.