A “slight collision” between a tanker and an oil tanker in the Suez Canal caused the suspension of traffic for several hours on the important maritime route, which has not yet recovered its regular traffic, which, according to the managing authority of the route, “It will resume in a few hours.”
The incident, the seventh so far this year, took place last morning when “a slight collision occurred between the liquefied gas tanker BW Lesmes and the oil tanker that was following it Burri”, from the Cayman Islands, the president confirmed. of the Suez Canal Authority, Lieutenant General Osama Rabie, in a statement.
Rabie explained that the crash occurred “at kilometer 144 of the seaway due to the sudden stop of the BW Lesmes due to a technical failure in the steering and machinery, while the intensity of the current pushed the Burri towards the stopped ship”.
He also pointed out that several tugboats “managed to deal with the emergency situation” to remove the two vessels out of the sea lane.
Rabie sent a reassuring message noting that “regular traffic will resume in a few hours” and that the “light” crash has not caused “serious damage or pollution incidents” in the channel, although he said that “the crew of the Burri tanker reported a sudden malfunction in the steering”.
“Regular navigation in the canal will resume in both directions within a few hours, as the ships of the northern convoy are due to resume their passage as soon as the Burri tanker is towed out of the way,” he stressed.
The Singapore-flagged BW Lesmes is 295 meters long, 46 meters wide and has a capacity of 121,000 tons, while the Burri is about 250 meters long, 44 meters wide and has a tonnage of 67,000 tons, stressed the note.
Pro-government media said this morning that “a failure” caused the BW Lesmes to run aground in the seaway at dawn, and the state chain Cairo24 broadcast images of the “ship after successfully refloating it”, without disclosing details.
The Suez Canal, an important source of foreign currency earnings for Egypt, has been the scene of repeated incidents this year, although not all events of this nature have interrupted transit through the canal.
The last serious one took place in the first week of August due to the collision of a tugboat and an oil tanker that was crossing the seaway, which caused the temporary suspension of traffic in the channel.
That incident, which caused the death of a tugboat crew member, was at least the sixth of its kind so far this year, and it happened two months after the oil tanker “Seavigour” paralyzed traffic in the canal after suffering a failure mechanic for which it had to be refloated.
The most serious incident took place in March 2021 when the container ship “Ever Given” blocked the sea passage with its 400 meters in length and 18,000 containers on board.
This caused a huge traffic jam along this route, through which around 10% of the world’s merchandise passes and which brings in some 8,000 million dollars a year to Egypt.