Tanker refloated after breakdown in Egypt’s Suez Canal

An aerial view of the Gulf of Suez and the Suez Canal are pictured via the window of an airplane on a flight between Cairo and Doha, Egypt, November 27, 2021. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

CAIRO, Sept 1 (Reuters) – Tug boats refloated an oil tanker that was briefly stranded in Egypt’s Suez Canal late on Wednesday after to a technical fault with its rudder, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) stated.

The 252 metre (827-foot) vessel, Affinity V, had drifted to impede the southern part of the canal whereas travelling in a southbound convoy of ships round 1700 GMT, delivery and canal sources stated.

SCA sources stated shortly after 2200GMT that site visitors had returned to regular.

The incident occurred in the identical single-lane stretch of the canal the place a large cargo ship, the Ever Given, ran aground in March 2021 and was caught for six days, disrupting world commerce.

Based on ship monitoring service TankerTrackers, the Aframax tanker Affinity V appeared to have misplaced management whereas heading south.

“She quickly clogged up site visitors and is now going through south once more, however transferring slowly by tugboat help,” TankerTrackers stated on Twitter shortly after information of the refloat.

The SCA launched video exhibiting its chairman, Osama Rabie, in a management room the place employees have been working to resolve the issue, and photographs of the tanker being escorted within the canal by tugs.

By Thursday morning Refinitiv ship-tracking knowledge and the Marine Site visitors web site confirmed that the Affinity V had handed via the canal and was within the Gulf of Suez.

The Singapore-flagged tanker was headed for the Purple Sea port of Yanbu in Saudi Arabia, the monitoring websites stated.

After the Ever Given ran aground, the SCA had introduced accelerated plans to increase the canal, together with extending a second channel that permits delivery to go in each instructions alongside a part of its course and deepening an present channel.

Work on the growth is because of be accomplished in 2023.

Reporting by Yousri Mohamed, Yasmin Hussein, Yomna Ehab and Nafisa Eltahir
Writing by Aidan Lewis
Enhancing by Christian Schmollinger, Himani Sarkar and David Goodman

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