Adnoc’s LNG Tankers Go Dark to Get Shipments Through Hormuz
(Bloomberg) -- Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. has managed to keep a trickle of liquefied natural gas exports moving through the Strait of Hormuz by concealing tanker locations, as established producers shift tactics to navigate the conflict.
At least two tankers that loaded at Adnoc’s Das Island facility recently went dark to carry shipments out of Hormuz, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of vessel-tracking data and people with knowledge of the matter. Satellite imagery shows ships continuing to dock at the terminal, even as no tankers broadcast positions near the plant.
Three other empty Adnoc LNG carriers also stopped transmitting signals after reaching the eastern entrance of the strait, ship data show. These vessels are also masking their movements to head into the Gulf via Hormuz to load cargoes, said one of the people, who asked not to be named as they aren’t authorized to speak with the media.
Hormuz has remained virtually shut as the US and Iran struggle to reach a peace agreement, with both sides enforcing a de facto blockade on a waterway that normally handles about a fifth of global LNG supply. Vessels continue to face security threats, including Iranian drone attacks earlier this week on an Adnoc-linked oil tanker near Oman.
Adnoc didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Gas flows have been upended even more than crude oil by the closure. So far, at least two loaded LNG tankers linked to Adnoc have been identified exiting the Gulf since the end of February. While that offers tentative signs that more flows could resume, it remains a far cry from pre-war levels of roughly three shipments a day.
Adnoc’s move underscores how producers are resorting to riskier strategies to push fuel out of the region with the conflict now in its third month, with no clear timeline for a full resumption of shipping through Hormuz. The approach has allowed Adnoc to maintain limited LNG production at its export plant.
That contrasts with neighboring Qatar, which hasn’t shipped any LNG through the waterway since the US and Israeli strikes on Iran in late February led to the strait’s closure. Qatar was forced to shut its massive Ras Laffan LNG export facility in March after attacks by Iran, and declared force majeure on scheduled shipments to its customers.
“Adnoc hasn’t declared force majeure, unlike QatarEnergy,” said Antonia Syn, a gas and LNG research analyst at Rystad Energy. Invoking the clause “formally reduces commercial pressure to attempt risky transits, and Adnoc appears determined to avoid fully conceding that gulf LNG is stranded,” she said.
The ships that Adnoc is currently using to export LNG through Hormuz are also older, and are of the same generation of sister tankers sent to the scrapyard last year, according to Syn. “Running the gauntlet on near-scrap steamships is probably a more palatable call than it sounds.”
LNG shipowners and operators are among the shipping industry’s most risk-averse, and sailing through Hormuz without transmitting signals marks a sharp break from past practice. For example, nearly all LNG carriers have avoided the Red Sea since Houthi rebel attacks escalated in 2023.
The Mraweh tanker, which is owned by Adnoc, was seen loaded with a cargo near northern Indonesia on Wednesday, with Japan listed as its next destination, after not transmitting a location for over two weeks, shipping data shows. The vessel was previously spotted empty on April 19, idling near the eastern entrance of Hormuz.
The Mubaraz — which loaded a cargo from Das Island in early March — also stopped sending a signal in late-March before reappearing nearly a month later crossing the southern tip of India.
(Updates with analyst comments in the ninth and tenth paragraphs.)
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