Qatari LNG tanker Al Rekayyat attacked near Strait of Hormuz, Qatar pauses production expansion

Following a projectile strike on the Qatari LNG tanker Al Rekayyat near the Strait of Hormuz on July 7, 2026, Qatar Energy paused its production expansion plans at the Ras Laffan complex. The attack, which caused an engine room fire but left the cargo intact, prompted the U.S. to strike Iranian targets and revoke Iran's oil sale license. While the vessel's crew was safely evacuated, the incident raised regional transit threat levels to severe and triggered a 5% jump in global oil prices.

Al Rekayyat tanker attack

• ▪Following the attack on the Al Rekayyat, Qatar Energy Chief Executive Officer Saad Al-Kaabi paused plans to increase liquefied natural gas output at the Ras Laffan complex
• ▪The Qatari LNG tanker Al Rekayyat sustained significant damage and caught fire in its engine room after a projectile strike on July 7, 2026
• ▪Qatar's foreign ministry summoned the deputy Iranian ambassador and stated that Iran bore full legal responsibility for the attack on the Al Rekayyat
• ▪The crew of the Al Rekayyat was safely evacuated, and the vessel's LNG cargo tanks remained unbreached and intact

LNG tanker explosion risks

• ▪The risk of an LNG carrier exploding increases if a fire spreads to cargo systems, damages containment tanks, or triggers a significant LNG leak
• ▪Industry sources assessed that the risk of the Al Rekayyat exploding was low as long as the vessel was not subjected to further attacks
• ▪While the LNG industry has experienced onshore accidents, there has never been a catastrophic cargo-tank explosion on a commercial LNG carrier at sea

LNG carrier safety systems

• ▪Boil-off gas that naturally evaporates during LNG transport is often captured and fed directly into the ship's engines as a primary fuel source
• ▪Modern LNG carriers utilize double-hull construction, multiple containment barriers, gas detection systems, and emergency shutdown systems to reduce explosion risks

War-related energy vessel attacks

• ▪Following attacks on the Al Rekayyat and two other tankers, the Saudi-flagged Wedyan and Liberia-flagged Cyprus Prosperity, the Joint Maritime Information Center raised the transit threat level to severe
• ▪The attack on the Al Rekayyat was the second war-related attack on an LNG vessel in 2026, following a March incident where the Russian tanker Arctic Metagaz caught fire
• ▪The United States revoked a license allowing Iran to sell oil and launched military strikes against Iranian targets overnight following the tanker attacks

LNG storage transportation methods

• ▪LNG is stored and transported in heavily insulated cryogenic tanks designed to keep the liquid cold throughout the voyage
• ▪Liquefied natural gas is natural gas cooled to around minus 162 degrees Celsius, which shrinks its volume by approximately 600 times for economical shipping