Meet 'Al Kharaitiyat', Qatar's first LNG ship to cross Strait of Hormuz since US-Iran war began

The Qatar-linked liquefied natural gas (LNG) ship Al Kharaitiyat (IMO: 9397327) has become the country's first such vessel to transit the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the war between Iran and US-Israel forces, which has crossed two months.

According to maritime trackers, the Marshall Islands-flagged LNG tanker had loaded up at Qatar's Ras Laffan earlier this month. 

Managed by Nakilat Shipping Qatar Ltd, the Al Kharaitiyat has a cargo capacity of 211,986 cubic metres, a Reuters report said, citing LSEG data. By 8 PM on Sunday, the vessel's AIS data showed it was far beyond the strait and en route to the Qasim Port in Pakistan.

The ship is being sold ​by Qatar to Pakistan—a mediator in the Gulf tensions that are currently straining the ceasefire in place—under ⁠a government-to-government deal, the report added, citing two people familiar with the matter.

The sources also said that the LNG shipment had received Iran's prior approval for safe passage through the strait as Tehran wanted to build confidence with Qatar ​and Pakistan.

The report added that the deal is a part of Islamabad's talks with Tehran on the sidelines of the peace talks to facilitate the passage of a limited number of LNG tankers through the strait as it was facing a pressing gas shortage due to the shipments from its main supplier, Qatar, being cut off amid the war.

This comes a month after two such LNG tankers from Qatar were forced to abandon their efforts to transit through the Strait of Hormuz.

These were the Bahamian-flagged Al Daayen (IMO: 9325702) and the Marshall Islands-flagged Rasheeda (IMO: 9443413), which had both loaded LNG from the Ras Laffan export plant in late February, after which the war began, leaving many such vessels stranded.

The April attempt was the first made by the two vessels, which would have made them the first LNG shipments from Qatar outside the Middle East, but the naval forces of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intervened, warning the two vessels of danger if they attempted to cross the strait.