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LNG tankers carrying gas from Qatar able to pass through Red Sea, Suez Canal

Daily Sabah WORLD
Published June 13,2017
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All single northbound Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) tankers carrying gas from Qatar, which is currently experiencing diplomatic problems with some Gulf countries, are able to pass through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal without disruptions, reports said Tuesday.

Qatar produces up to 77 million tons of gas annually and is the world's largest exporter of LNG.

While some countries closed their airspace for Qatar Airways flights, the sea route for LNG tankers seems to be unaffected by the conflict.

On Saturday, energy giant Qatar Petroleum said that business proceeded as usual, despite the diplomatic crisis.

"Qatar Petroleum, and its subsidiaries, wishes to affirm that it is conducting business as usual throughout all its upstream, midstream and downstream businesses and operations, and in all activities across all of QP's world-class facilities," the energy giant said.

Qatar is a major supplies of LNG for Turkey. While Turkey imports spot LNG from seven different countries, it supplies 68.5 percent of these purchases from Qatar.

The recent spat started on June 5, when Bahrain, Comoros, Egypt, Maldives, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen's internationally backed government and one of Libya's three governments cut off diplomatic ties with Qatar over accusations that the Gulf nation funds militant groups – charges Doha calls baseless.

Several other Muslim nations also downgraded their diplomatic ties with Qatar.