CAIRO — Two tankers bring oil items and melted natural gas clashed in a single-lane stretch of the Suez Canal, briefly interferingwith traffic through the international waterway priorto it was cleared, Egyptian authorities stated Wednesday.
The Suez Canal Authority stated in a declaration that the BW Lesmes, a Singapore-flagged tanker that brings melted natural gas, suffered a mechanical breakdown in its propulsion and guiding systems on Tuesday night. It ran aground after which the Burri, a Cayman Islands-flagged oil items tanker, clashed with it at the 144 kilometer (89 mile) -mark of the waterway, the canal stated.
The crash interferedwith traffic for anumberof hours while the canal authority released tugboats to tow the 2 tankers away. The 2 were part of a convoy of vessels transiting through the canal from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea.
“Traffic will go back to typical in both instructions within the coming hours,” Adm. Ossama Rabei, the head of the canal authority, stated earlier Wednesday, priorto tugboats gottenridof the tankers and cleared the waterway.
The authorities blamed the strong currents in this part of the Suez Canal for the accident. The canal services company Leth Agencies stated the occurrence postponed the transit of 21 southbound vessels that were arranged to pass through the wa