Qatari LNG Cargo Heads Through Red Sea to Europe in Rare Suez Run

A Qatari LNG cargo is traveling north in the Red Sea to deliver gas to Europe via the Suez Canal in a rare shipment on the shortest but dangerous route to Europe amid the Houthi threats to tankers in the southern Red Sea and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The tanker loaded LNG from Qatar in August and is now moving north in the Red Sea with Poland as its destination, Bloomberg reported on Monday, quoting vessel-tracking data it had compiled. Qatar’s state firm QatarEnergy has a term contract with Polish energy group Orlen, as well as with other European buyers, to supply LNG to the European market. But since the Iran war began, the Strait of Hormuz was closed, and attacks damaged Qatar’s liquefaction complex Ras Laffan, the world’s single biggest such facility; QatarEnergy has extended each month the force majeure on deliveries it first announced in early March. Qatar’s LNG exports are nowhere near the pace and level of recovery seen in the crude oil exports from the Middle East.