SUEZ CANAL, Egypt
Two tankers carrying oil products and liquefied natural gas collided in the Suez Canal, disrupting traffic through the global waterway, Egyptian authorities said Wednesday.
The Suez Canal authority said
in a statement that the BW Lesmes, a Singapore-flagged tanker that
carries liquefied
natural gas, suffered a mechanical malfunction on Tuesday night and ran
aground while transiting through the canal. The Burri, a Cayman
Island-flagged oil products tanker, collided with the broken vessel.
The collision disrupted
traffic, the statement said. The two tanker were part of a convoy transiting
through from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea.
“We’ve immediately handled the
breakdowns... and traffic will go back to normal in both directions within the
coming hours,” said Admiral Ossama Rabei, the head of the canal authority, in
the statement.
About 10% of world trade flows
through the canal, a major source of foreign currency for the Egyptian
government.
In March 2021, the
Panama-flagged Ever Given, a colossal container ship,
crashed into a bank on a single-lane stretch of the canal, blocking the
waterway for six days and disrupting global trade.
MarineTraffic, a vessel
tracking service provider, released a time-lapse video for the incident that
showed the Burri turning to port and colliding with the BW
Lesmes which was already grounding across the waterway.
The canal authorities said
they managed to refloat and tow away the BW Lesmes, while efforts
were underway to remove the Burri from the waterway.
“All crew members are safe and
accounted for and there were no injuries or any reports of pollution,” BW LNG AS,
the operators of the BW Lesmes, said in a statement.
Rabei said initial inspections
showed that there was no significant damage to the tankers, or pollution at the
site. A technical team from Oslo, Norway would arrive at the vessel later
Wednesday to investigate the incident, BW LNG AS said.
Wednesday’s incident was the
latest case of a vessel reported stuck in the crucial waterway. A flurry of
ships has run aground or broken down in the Suez Canal over the past few years.
The canal, which opened in 1869,
provides a crucial link for oil, natural gas and cargo.
According to the Suez Canal
Authority, last year 23,851 vessels passed through the waterway, compared to
20,649 vessels in 2021. The revenue from the canal in 2022 reached $8 billion,
the highest in its history.
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