Two tankers carrying oil products and liquefied natural gas collided in the Suez Canal, disrupting traffic through the global waterway, Egyptian authorities said .
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 August 22 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,” authority chairman Osama Rabie said.
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.
