Qatar launches new shipping services to Oman amid diplomatic row

Qatar has launched two new shipping services to Omani ports to allay concerns of food shortages in the gas-rich Persian Gulf kingdom in the wake of a recent move by a number of Arab countries to close their borders and airspace with Doha.

According to Press TV, Qatar’s Ports Management Company (Mwani), a shareholding company established in 2009, announced on Sunday that the two new services would each run three times a week between Qatar's Hamad Port and the Omani Ports of Sohar in the north and Salalah in the south.

Mwani posted a video on Twitter on Monday, which shows loaded Hansa Neuberg container ship arriving at Doha's Hamad Port from Oman's Port of Sohar to a water-cannon welcome.

Typically, shipping containers destined for Qatar stop at Dubai's massive deep-water Jebel Ali Port or in the Emirati Capital of Abu Dhabi, before being put on smaller boats and heading to Doha. 

Vessels leaving Qatari ports normally refuel ahead of their voyages at the UAE Port of Fujairah, the Persian Gulf's largest ship-fuel or bunkering port.

This is while Abu Dhabi Petroleum Ports Authority on June 7 imposed a ban on international tankers and Qatar-flagged ships traveling to and from Qatar, preventing them from calling at ports in the UAE. The measure has left shipowners and charters scrambling to plan logistics for their vessels.

Qatari officials have told local media that there are sufficient food stocks, and supplies are being imported “in a routine manner from different sources.”

Iranian officials say the country is already sending at least 100 tonnes of food supplies to Qatar by plane every day.

Shahrokh Noushabadi, national flag carrier Iran Air's Spokesman, was quoted by the domestic media as saying that at least five planeloads of fruits and vegetables had already been sent to Qatar.

ME