CAIRO (AP) — Two tankers carrying oil products and liquefied natural gas collided in the Suez Canal, disrupting traffic on the global waterway, Egyptian authorities said Wednesday.
The Suez Canal Authority said in a statement that the BW Lesmes, a Singapore-flagged liquefied natural gas tanker, suffered a mechanical failure on Tuesday evening and ran aground while passing through the canal. The Burri, an oil products tanker sailing under Cayman Island, collided with the broken ship.
Traffic was disrupted as a result of the collision, the statement said. The two tankers were part of a convoy in transit from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea.
“We immediately rectified the disruptions…and traffic will return to normal in both directions within the next few hours,” Admiral Ossama Rabei, the head of the canal authority, said in the statement.
About 10% of world trade flows through the canal, an important source of foreign exchange for the Egyptian government.
In March 2021, the Panamanian-flagged Ever Given, a colossal container ship, crashed into a bank on a single-lane section of the canal, blocking the waterway for six days and disrupting global trade.
MarineTraffic, a vessel tracking service provider, has released a time-lapse video of the incident, showing the Burri turning to port and colliding with the BW Lesmes already across the waterway at the ground lay.
Canal authorities said they were successful in refloating and towing the BW Lesmes, while efforts were made to remove the Burri from the waterway.
“All crew members are safe and under surveillance and there have been no injuries or reports of contamination,” BW LNG AS, the operator of the BW Lesmes, said in a statement.
Rabei said initial inspections showed no significant damage to the tankers or contamination at the site. A technical team from Oslo, Norway was expected to arrive at the vessel later Wednesday to investigate the incident, BW LNG AS said.
Wednesday’s incident was the latest instance of a ship stuck in the crucial waterway. In recent years, a stream of ships have run aground or broken down in the Suez Canal.
Opened in 1869, the canal is a vital link for oil, natural gas and freight.
According to the Suez Canal Authority, 23,851 ships passed through the waterway last year, compared to 20,649 ships in 2021. Revenue from the canal was $8 billion in 2022, the highest in its history.
