Qatar extends LNG force majeure as Hormuz crisis drags on

Qatar extends LNG force majeure coverage through November as war related disruption keeps most cargo traffic through the Strait of Hormuz at a standstill. The United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG), a market proxy rather than a direct LNG quote, fell 3.64% to $11.13 on September 25, 2026. The price move does not measure Qatar’s delivered gas prices.

Why Qatar extends LNG force majeure through November

QatarEnergy has told buyers in Bangladesh and Pakistan, at least one customer in India, and Italy’s Edison that force majeure on deliveries will last beyond the end of October. For most customers, the extension runs through November. Edison said its extension reaches early December.

The notices reflect the continuing difficulty of moving Qatari LNG through the Strait of Hormuz. Some cargoes from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have recently crossed the strait, while other shipments have transferred between vessels offshore Oman. Those volumes remain only a small share of Qatar’s prewar exports.

Six months of disruption has cut Qatar’s export flow

After six months of war related disruption, Qatar’s LNG sales had fallen by $24 billion, according to calculations reported last month. Exports dropped by as much as 96%. ICIS data cited in the source report put Qatar’s shipments at 18 cargoes, compared with 509 in the same period last year.

Those figures show a severe supply constraint, but they describe exports, not a measured fall in production. LNG is also harder to reroute than oil. Oil producers have used ship to ship transfers and alternative routes, but LNG requires specialized handling and cannot be shifted through the same workarounds as easily.

UNG tracks gas, not Qatar’s delivered LNG price

The market snapshot places UNG within a 52 week range of $9.54 to $11.67, with a relative strength index of 60.83. These figures describe the ETF and offer a US natural gas proxy, not a direct price for Qatari shipments. The snapshot does not include inventory balances or dollar moves, so neither can be weighed against the day’s decline here.

For buyers in Asia and Europe, the central pressure remains the limited flow of export cargoes. Recent transits and transfers have not replaced the volumes stranded by the Hormuz disruption, leaving delivery schedules exposed for another month.