The Hydrographer of Pakistan issued NAVAREA IX 411/26 at 271500 UTC on 27 October as a Central Gulf / Qatar works warning. The official text puts a subsea pipeline installation, to be conducted by vessel MC Dermott DB30 supported by multiple vessels, in a four-point box from 28 October to 26 November 2026. Charts cited are BA 2523, 2837 and 2886. Mariners are requested to navigate with caution, give a wide berth of at least two nautical miles, and maintain a listening watch on VHF Channels 12 and 16. The notice cancels NAVAREA IX 359/26. That is the working primary. It is a pipelay-berth product. It is not a security-incident caution, not a wreck notice, and not this morning’s dedicated 410/26 cancel of the GFS Pride, Cape Dao and Ghana Prosperity cautions.
Pakistan’s NAVAREA IX in-force table, as of Wednesday 28 October, lists 411/26 under Central Gulf / Qatar, DTG 271500 UTC 27 October, description subsea pipeline installation. The same 271500 UTC clock issued 412/26, an AHTS Accomplish 350-metre floating-hose tow, self-cancelling at 282300 UTC 28 October, and 410/26, the three-product security-caution cancel. 413/26, issued 271945 UTC, is a northern Gulf / Kuwait live-firing box for 0300–0900 UTC on 28 and 29 October, self-cancelling at 291000 UTC 29 October. Those three are wrap on this piece, not second primaries. Masters who brief Wednesday as a Hormuz Attack, as a Qatar port closure, or as a rewrite of 410/26 will have merged a month-long pipelay box into the wrong series.
What the warning actually printed
The hydrographic text is short. DTG 271500 UTC OCT 2026. NAVAREA IX 411/26. CENTRAL GULF. QATAR. CHARTS BA 2523, 2837 AND 2886. Subsea pipeline installation will be conducted by vessel MC Dermott DB30 supported by multi vessels from 28 October to 26 November 2026 in the following area: A. 26-26.00N 051-54.30E; B. 26-22.50N 051-58.40E; C. 26-09.50N 051-43.90E; D. 26-12.30N 051-39.80E. Mariners are requested to navigate with caution and give a wide berth of at least 2 NM. Maintain listening watch on VHF Channel 12 and 16. Cancel NAVAREA IX 359/26. That is the product. The coordinator printed neither a pipeline name, a field name, a least depth, a no-go inside the box, a security radius, a projectile, nor an attacker. Stay with the four corners, the two-nautical-mile berth, the 28 October–26 November window, and the named barge.
MENAS Navigation Warning 226/2026, dated 27 October, is the same-day regional NAVTEX reprint, not a second primary. It titles the work Central Gulf: Qatar – Subsea Pipeline Installation, cites BA 2523 and 2886, reprints the same four corners and the same 28 October to 26 November dates, names “MC DERMOTT DB30”, asks for a 2 NM berth and a watch on VHF 12 and 16, prints the period as approximately six weeks, and cancels NAVTEX 199/2026. Status of the warning is until further notice. MENAS does not add BA 2837. It does not add a field name. Do not treat the six-week line as a NAVAREA IX duration that replaced 26 November. Hold both: the NAVAREA date-pair is 28 October to 26 November; MENAS’s “approx. 6 weeks” is the regional paraphrase of that pair.
Open-register colour only on the named barge, not a NAVAREA finding: Derrick Barge 30 / DB30, IMO 8757788, pipe-lay / derrick barge, built 1975, about 128 metres, about 13,322 gt. McDermott’s own fleet page describes DB30 as a shallow-water pipelay barge with S-lay capability. That identity sits beside the NAVAREA name. It does not enlarge the keep-clear, name the pipeline, or convert 411/26 into a McDermott press release. The supporting “multi vessels” are unnamed. Do not invent tugs, trenchers or a second barge from the support line.
Same-clock wrap, not this berth: 412/26, 271500 UTC 27 October, Central Gulf / Qatar, charts BA 2523, 2886, 3783, 3787 and 3950, towing of 350 metres floating hose in progress by vessel AHTS Accomplish from 26-35.34N 052-02.17E to 24-57.42N 051-35.59E, mariners cautioned, cancel 282300 UTC 28 October. That tow sits north-to-south of the pipelay box and expires tonight. Do not fold Accomplish’s hose into the two-nautical-mile DB30 berth, and do not keep 412/26 as a standing warning after 282300 UTC unless a later NAVAREA reprints it. 410/26, issued on the same clock, remains this morning’s dedicated Pride / Cape Dao / Ghana Prosperity cancel. 413/26 remains a Kuwait live-firing box, 29-20.00N 048-26.00E / 29-20.00N 048-37.40E / 29-10.00N 048-37.40E / 29-10.00N 048-26.00E, 0300–0900 UTC on 28 and 29 October, keep well clear, cancel 291000 UTC 29 October — northern Gulf, not this Qatar box.
What this is not
This is not a security-incident NAVAREA and not a wreck product. 389/26, the Gulf of Oman oil-tanker security-incident caution on the dedicated Petro Dolphin / two-missing Sohar file, remains in force. 352/26 remains a Strait of Hormuz oil-tanker security-incident caution. 410/26 cancelled 373/26, 403/26 and 404/26 and then itself; those three last-known plots stay residual hazards on this morning’s dedicated cancel piece. 411/26 does not restore them, does not survey them, and does not sit in the Musandam or Sohar offsets.
This is not Warning 184-26, not Update 109, and not JMIC Advisory Note 016-26. UKMTO still ends at 183-26. Update 108 remains last numbered periodic JMIC note, ICOD 251300 UTC 25 October, Hormuz SEVERE. 016-26, dated 28 October, is a separate blockade visit-and-search advisory. The IMO highlighted-incidents board is still 121 confirmed / 24 seafarer fatalities as at 27 October. 411/26 names no tanker from that board.
This is not a Qatar port closure, not a Hormuz TSS change, and not a rewrite of the still-unused Central Gulf construction cluster issued 261500 UTC 26 October: 406/26 temporary wave-rider buoy at 26-38.47N 051-55.82E, 407/26 heavy-lift by self-propelled vessel DEHE at 26-38.36N 051-56.82E, and 408/26 deadman anchor marked by an unlit yellow buoy at 26-38.47N 051-56.05E. Those three sit a few miles north of the DB30 box and remain unused as dedicated pieces unless a later NAVAREA ties them to DB30 by name. Do not invent that tie from adjacent latitudes.
Operational implications
For a master running the Central Gulf on BA 2523 / 2837 / 2886 between now and 26 November, 411/26 is a passage-plan amendment before it is an offshore-construction story. The box is a four-corner polygon, not a single lat-long, and the keep-clear is two nautical miles outside that polygon, not a one-mile wreck circle. Night, restricted-visibility and north-south Qatar traffic that has been hugging inshore tracks to stay off northern-Gulf firing boxes now have a named barge, unnamed support craft, and a VHF 12-and-16 listening requirement for about four weeks. Cancel 359/26 in the NAVAREA pack. Do not cancel 406/26, 407/26 or 408/26 on the strength of 411/26. Those three are still in force as of Wednesday’s table.
For DPAs with Qatar calls, Ras Laffan, Mesaieed or east-west Gulf stems through the 26-26N to 26-09N band, the operational question is CPA against a slow, possibly anchored or moored pipelay spread, not a transiting tanker. DB30 is a derrick/pipe-lay barge. Support vessels are unnamed. A two-nautical-mile berth around a moving spread is a different radar problem from a two-nautical-mile berth around a fixed corner. Channel 12 is printed beside 16; a working-channel call is part of the notice, not optional colour. MENAS’s until-further-notice status means the regional NAVTEX can outlive a casual reading of “26 November” if the work overruns. The NAVAREA still has a stated end date. Log both, and watch a later 411-series cancel or extension.
For charterers and P&I, Wednesday is a delay-and-CPA file in the Central Gulf, not a war-risk conversion. 411/26 does not close Doha, Ras Laffan or Mesaieed. It does not reopen Hormuz. It does not cancel 412/26 before 282300 UTC tonight, and it does not cancel 413/26 before 291000 UTC Thursday. A fixture that only budgeted this morning’s 410/26 wreck-caution cancel has not budgeted a month of pipelay traffic, a same-day hose tow, or a two-day Kuwait firing box. Those are three different instruments on two different clocks.
Do not recast 27–28 October as a McDermott casualty, a named pipeline leak, a Qatar exclusion zone inside the four corners, a rewrite of 410/26, or a Hormuz product. The confirmed facts are NAVAREA IX 411/26, 271500 UTC 27 October, MC Dermott DB30, four corners, 28 October to 26 November, two-nautical-mile berth, VHF 12 and 16, cancel 359/26, MENAS 226/2026 as the regional reprint, and 412/26 / 413/26 / 410/26 as same-cycle wrap.
What Operators Should Note
- Log 411/26 as a four-week pipelay berth, not as a security caution. NAVAREA IX 411/26, 271500 UTC 27 October. Central Gulf / Qatar. Charts BA 2523, 2837, 2886. Vessel MC Dermott DB30, supported by unnamed multiple vessels. 28 October to 26 November 2026. Cancel 359/26. This is not Warning 184-26, not Update 109, not 410/26, and not a Qatar port closure.
- Plot the four corners and keep two nautical miles off the box. A. 26-26.00N 051-54.30E. B. 26-22.50N 051-58.40E. C. 26-09.50N 051-43.90E. D. 26-12.30N 051-39.80E. The berth is at least 2 NM. Listening watch on VHF 12 and 16. MENAS 226/2026 reprints the same corners, calls the period approximately six weeks, and cancels NAVTEX 199/2026. Hold the NAVAREA date-pair as the coordinator duration.
- Do not name a pipeline, a field, or the support spread. Open-register colour only: DB30 / Derrick Barge 30, IMO 8757788, pipe-lay barge, about 128 m / 13,322 gt, built 1975. The NAVAREA does not print IMO, flag, a pipeline name, a least depth, or a no-go inside the polygon. Unnamed support craft are part of the keep-clear problem. Do not invent them.
- Keep tonight’s hose tow and Thursday’s Kuwait box on their own clocks. 412/26, AHTS Accomplish, 350-metre floating hose from 26-35.34N 052-02.17E to 24-57.42N 051-35.59E, cancel 282300 UTC 28 October. 413/26, Kuwait live firing 0300–0900 UTC 28 and 29 October, 29-20.00N–29-10.00N / 048-26.00E–048-37.40E, cancel 291000 UTC 29 October. Neither is the DB30 berth.
- Leave 410/26 and the residual wreck plots on this morning’s cancel file. 373/26, 403/26 and 404/26 are withdrawn cautions, not surveyed wrecks. 389/26 Petro Dolphin and 352/26 remain in-force security-incident cautions. 406/26, 407/26 and 408/26 remain unused Central Gulf construction products a few miles north of this box unless a later NAVAREA names DB30 against them.
- Sohar, Fujairah, Hormuz and Qatar ports are not closed by this notice. Central Gulf north-south traffic through 26-26N to 26-09N now carries a named barge and a two-nautical-mile CPA through 26 November. Watch a later NAVAREA that extends, cancels or buoys 411/26 — not a completed pipelay, not a leak, and not a Hormuz rewrite.
Regulas Shipping will keep lining NAVAREA IX 411/26 against the same-clock Qatar hose tow and this morning’s 410/26 cancel so operators can treat the DB30 box as a two-nautical-mile pipelay berth through 26 November, not as a security wreck, a port closure or an IMO rewrite.
