Qatari LNG carrier hit in Gulf was bound for Pakistan with Iran's clearance, Bloomberg says

A Qatari tanker carrying liquefied natural gas was hit by "unidentified objects" while sailing through the Gulf on Friday evening, its owner Nakilat said, as Iran set out the price for reopening the Strait of Hormuz within two days and the United States said its channels for negotiation remained open.

The ship, Al Mayeda, was carrying Qatari LNG to Pakistan, and Islamabad had negotiated safe passage for it with Iranian officials, who approved the voyage only hours before it was struck, Bloomberg reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the discussions. No one has claimed the attack. All 25 crew, six of them Indian, are safe, India's shipping minister said, and Nakilat said the vessel is still operational.

The attack comes as Washington and Tehran trade offers through mediators while both prepare for the possibility that the war resumes after Tuesday's US midterm elections.

What happened

In a statement dated October 30 and posted on its website on Sunday, Qatar Gas Transport Company (Nakilat) said Al Mayeda "was hit by unidentified objects" while transiting the Gulf on the evening of Friday, October 30. None of the crew was injured, there was no environmental impact, and the ship was "in a safe condition, operational", the company said, adding that the impact of the incident was still being assessed and that it was in direct contact with "the relevant maritime security authorities in the region".

The company did not say where exactly the ship was hit, what struck it or who it believed was responsible. Anadolu Agency reported that the statement was also filed with the Qatar Stock Exchange, and the Qatar News Agency carried it on Sunday, according to DPA. There was no statement from Qatar's government by Sunday evening India time.

The UK Maritime Trade Operations centre (UKMTO), which tracks attacks on shipping, issued a warning (188-26) about an incident at 1800 UTC (11.30 pm IST) on 30 October about 40 nautical miles south of Iran's Lavan Island, in which a projectile struck a vessel on its port side and started a fire, EconoTimes reported. The warning did not name the ship; EconoTimes linked it to Al Mayeda. Vessel-tracking data showed the tanker later turned back towards the Gulf, according to Bloomberg's report as carried by Investing.com.

India's Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Sarbananda Sonowal, said in a post on X on Saturday that the Marshall Islands-flagged carrier, "carrying 6 Indian seafarers, was targeted in a projectile attack". He said all six and the rest of the 25-member crew were "completely safe" and that the ministry was in close contact with the ship's managers, ANI reported.

The Associated Press noted that Iran has claimed earlier attacks on shipping and has warned that vessels crossing Hormuz without its permission could be destroyed. Separately, Iran's navy said a tanker caught fire after striking mines east of Hormuz, without naming the ship, Investing.com reported. On Saturday, Iran said four tankers were on fire after hitting mines in the strait.

A cargo cleared by Iran

The Bloomberg report, which The Declaration read as republished by Investing.com and Izvestia, said Pakistan had relied on talks with Iran over the past month to get several Qatari LNG shipments safely through the strait. Why a cargo that Iran had reportedly cleared came under attack is unclear, and Iran has not commented on the incident. Neither Pakistan's government nor Qatar's had made a public statement on it by Sunday evening India time.

If the cargo does not arrive, Pakistan may have to buy replacement LNG on the spot market, where prices are more than three times their pre-war level, the report said. LNG shipments through Hormuz were running at about 30% of pre-war volumes in October.

On Sunday, Iran's army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia warned on state television that a new war with the US "could last longer than previous conflict" and that the American president would not be able to dictate when or how it ended, AFP reported, according to CBS News.

Iran's two-day offer, and its conditions

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera that Iranian officials had discussed a plan to reopen the strait "within two days" and restart talks with the US, provided Washington meets Tehran's demands. An Iranian delegation that included one of his aides travelled to Doha on Saturday to meet Qatari mediators. According to Investing.com, Qatar helped shorten an earlier seven-day Iranian proposal: the US would take its steps on day one, and shipping would resume on day two.

Al Jazeera listed Iran's conditions as:

• the lifting of recently imposed US sanctions;
• the restoration of the oil waivers granted in June;
• a smaller US military presence in the region;
• recognition of new Hormuz shipping routes designated by Iran and Oman;
• an end to the conflict "on all fronts", including Israel's attacks on Lebanon.

Investing.com's account also included the release of frozen Iranian funds. Araghchi said Qatari and Pakistani mediators were "continuing consultations regarding our conditions."

Iran's security chief Mohsen Rezaei said the US had indicated it was ready to accept Iran's conditions, a claim Washington has not confirmed, and said Hormuz would not reopen before they were met.

What the US is saying

Speaking at the Manama Dialogue security conference in Bahrain on Sunday, Donald Blome, the US assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, said the US had extended "the hand of negotiation" and that its channels had "continued to be open and active", AP reported. He added: "We just can't allow Iran to take this region and the global economy hostage."

President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the talks were "going fine" but that Iran was "not very reliable". The US still had to deal with "one or two sites", he said, which could be done "in 10 minutes", singling out the Pickaxe Mountain site, according to the Times of Israel. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "talks have actually never stopped" and that Trump had not decided on new strikes.

US Central Command has said its blockade of Iranian ports has turned back 144 commercial ships, Investing.com reported.

Background

The US and Israel began striking Iran in late February. Iran responded with attacks across the region and on shipping, and traffic through Hormuz, the route for a large share of the world's oil and LNG, has been badly disrupted since. A memorandum of understanding brokered by Qatar and Pakistan in June collapsed in August, according to Al Jazeera, and the US has since kept up a naval blockade of Iranian ports.

Alongside the diplomacy, Tehran has issued fresh warnings. Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has ordered commanders to widen their target list to all US and Israeli assets and said any response would be "immediate" and "without geographical limitations", Al Jazeera reported. Rezaei has said Iran is weighing a change to its nuclear doctrine.

Why it matters for India

Qatar has been India's largest LNG supplier. Petronet LNG has bought about 8.5 million tonnes a year from Qatar under two contracts, and in 2024 renewed its main 7.5-million-tonne deal until 2048; Petronet's chief executive said then that it made up around 35% of India's LNG imports, PTI reported at the time.

When QatarEnergy declared force majeure after Iran's retaliation earlier this year, about 11.2 million tonnes of India's roughly 27 million tonnes of annual LNG imports were disrupted, PTI reported in April. Indian buyers turned to other suppliers, and fertiliser plants and industry faced gas cuts for weeks. An attack on a Qatari LNG carrier, even one that caused little damage, is a reminder that the fuel used in Indian fertiliser plants, city gas networks and power stations still depends on the safety of Gulf shipping lanes.

The attack on Al Mayeda was one of three on ships with Indian crews in two days. Two Indians on the Liberia-flagged tanker Arzanah, hit on 29 October, and 27 on the Panama-flagged crude tanker Louise 1, hit on 30 October, were also reported safe, according to Nation Path and ANI. The external affairs ministry has said 22 Indian nationals, 14 of them seafarers, have died in the West Asia conflict, ANI reported.

What happens next

• The US votes in midterm elections on Tuesday, November 3. Al Jazeera, citing reports, said the US had warned Gulf allies to prepare for a short, intense round of strikes after the vote; Israel's Ynet reported that Israel is preparing for another round.
• Qatar and Pakistan are continuing mediation over Iran's conditions; no direct US-Iran meeting has been announced.
• Nakilat has said it is still assessing the damage to Al Mayeda.