Qatar Reopens All Waters: 21 Stranded LNG Tankers Still Can’t Leave Persian Gulf
Qatar lifted its maritime restrictions for all vessel types effective Sunday, July 26 — the culmination of a phased reopening that had repeatedly stalled over four weeks of conflict. The same weekend, vessel-tracking firm Kpler recorded just seven commodity transits through the Strait of Hormuz and eleven through the Bab el-Mandeb, both among the lowest figures in months, while 21 liquefied natural gas carriers remained marooned inside the Persian Gulf with no workable exit corridor.
The gap between diplomatic signal and physical reality is now sharp enough to measure. Oil markets marked Brent crude down 4.1% to $92.82 and WTI down 4.5% to $85.29 over the ceasefire weekend, reflecting trader optimism about a pause in U.S. strikes on Iran. Kpler’s transit data for the same 48 hours tells a different story: Hormuz, the world’s most critical oil chokepoint, recorded three commodity crossings on Saturday — all with Automatic Identification System transponders switched off to avoid becoming targeting data — and seven on Sunday. No liquefied natural gas tanker has transited Hormuz since July 11.
That leaves 21 LNG carriers bottled up in the Persian Gulf, unable to reach their contracted buyers in East Asia and Europe, and contributing to a supply squeeze that has persisted since the crisis began on February 28.
Qatar’s Phased Reopening Completes
Qatar‘s Ministry of Transport announced on Saturday, July 25, that full maritime navigation would resume for all vessel types as of Sunday, July 26. The decision completed a process that had lurched through four distinct phases since late June.
The first suspension came June 29, when a Qatari national was killed by shrapnel from regional military operations and a vessel went missing before being recovered in a search-and-rescue operation. A partial reopening on July 5 restored commercial cargo operations while keeping leisure craft, fishing vessels, and jet skis prohibited. A second, broader suspension took effect July 12, imposed amid a fresh round of Iranian attacks on three tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and a deepening dispute between Washington and Tehran over which transit corridor commercial ships must use. A partial coastal reopening on July 21 restored access within approximately seven nautical miles of the Qatari coast, covering the waters off Lusail City and serving Hamad Port.
Sunday’s full restoration extends to all vessel categories and all waters under Qatar‘s jurisdiction. The Ministry urged operators to ensure all safety and security equipment was aboard before departure.
Seven Ships Sunday: What the Vessel Data Shows
The clearest measure of the gap between diplomatic progress and physical flows is the raw transit count for the weekend of July 26-27.
According to Kpler data, Hormuz recorded seven commodity vessel transits on Sunday, July 26 — a fraction of the 130-plus daily crossings that were standard before the war began. On Saturday, only three vessels attempted the crossing, all with AIS transponders turned off. The ships thus became invisible to the real-time tracking systems that Iran uses to identify and assess potential targets. Under the SOLAS Convention’s Chapter V Regulation 19, a ship’s master may disable the AIS beacon if doing so is necessary to protect the vessel’s safety or security — an exception written for individual vessels in piracy corridors, not for systematic fleet-wide suppression across an entire international transit corridor.
The practical effect is a gray zone: enough oil trickles through Hormuz that a full market panic is forestalled, but the sustained risk keeps the physical disruption and uncertainty alive.
Original Article: Qatar Reopens All Waters: 21 Stranded LNG Tankers Still Can’t Leave Persian Gulf — Techtimes