Pakistan's Repeated Emergency LNG Tenders Signal Hormuz Disruption Is Running Deeper Than Expected
State-owned Pakistan LNG has entered the spot market multiple times since mid-May as Strait of Hormuz attacks cut off contracted Qatari cargoes.
Pakistan LNG released a tender over the weekend of June 27-28 (2026) to procure a cargo for delivery between June 30 and July 4, the latest in a series of emergency spot-market purchases driven by sustained attacks in the Strait of Hormuz.7 ICE Endex TTF front-month gas jumped 12.83% to €49.08 on Friday (2026-07-10), underscoring how persistently the disruption to Qatari supply has kept European gas benchmarks elevated weeks after the initial corridor closures.
Pakistan entered the spot market for more expensive cargoes for at least the second time in June (2026) before that late-June tender, Bloomberg reported, after contracted Qatari deliveries were blocked by deteriorating strait conditions.6
The initial emergency bid came on Thursday (2026-05-21), when Pakistan LNG sought 0.24bcm of LNG for delivery between April 27 and May 14 — a volume equivalent to 10% of Europe's imports in the week of May 11, according to Montel.1 Traders at the time told Montel the purchase was unlikely to significantly tighten global markets.1 That assessment looks harder to sustain as the buying has continued through June and into late June.
The root cause traces to a vessel diversion in mid-May. A Qatari LNG carrier, the Mihzem, laden with 178,000 cubic metres of LNG, made an apparent U-turn while attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz on Monday (2026-05-18), Kpler vessel-tracking data showed.2 It followed a first Qatar-origin cargo that had passed safely on Sunday (2026-05-17), suggesting conditions deteriorated within days of that initial transit.2
The Mihzem's reversal pointed to a larger infrastructure problem. Qatar's main LNG export facility, which accounts for 17% of global LNG flows under normal operations, was knocked offline after being struck by an Iranian drone, Montel reported.3 Qatar supplies roughly 20% of global LNG, and with the facility down, buyers across South Asia that hold Qatari long-term contracts have been displaced into the spot market simultaneously.5
The shortfall is not a brief disruption by most estimates. Around 12.8 million tonnes of annual LNG supply could remain offline for three to five years, and global consultancies have cut supply projections by up to 35 million tonnes as a result.4 US exporters cannot easily close the gap. Deferring maintenance at American terminals was identified as the only realistic near-term lever to increase US output, but that option covers only a fraction of the Qatari volumes displaced and carries its own operational risks.5
There is a contrarian signal in the Asian benchmark. Platts JKM Asian spot LNG stood at $16.57 on Friday (2026-07-10), flat on the session, even as TTF pushed sharply higher. The divergence may reflect European buyers drawing Atlantic basin cargoes westward, tightening Europe more visibly than Asia. It could also reflect traders' lingering view that Pakistan's individual purchase volumes, while now recurring, remain too small to shift the regional benchmark — the same logic cited when the first tender emerged in May (2026), though the persistence of subsequent tenders was not anticipated.
A further purchase after the July 4 delivery window closes would indicate contracted Qatari flows have not resumed through the Strait of Hormuz at the volumes Pakistan requires. Each additional re-entry carries somewhat more weight in JKM than traders assigned to the first.7