DUBAI - Regular marine traffic in both directions through Egypt's Suez Canal will resume within hours, the chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, Osama Rabie, said on Wednesday after LNG Tanker BW Lesmes and Oil Products Tanker BURRI collided in the waterway.
An initial inspection shows no serious damage, or pollution in the vicinity of the collided tankers, Rabie added.
Rabie said that the authority's marine rescue tugboats succeeded in dealing immediately with navigation emergencies and technical malfunctions that two tankers were exposed to during their crossing of the canal within the northern convoy in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
The head of the authority explained that slight friction occurred between the liquefied natural gas tanker "BW LESMES" and the oil tanker following it "BURRI" during the sudden stop of the tanker "BW LESMES" in the navigational channel in channel after it was exposed to a technical failure in the steering and machinery, which made it lose the ability to steer, in parallel with the intensity of the current that pushed the BURRI tanker towards friction with the idle tanker.
The head of the authority indicated that the initial inspection indicated that there were no significant damages or pollution incidents in the vicinity of the two tankers, but the crew of the tanker "BURRI" reported a sudden malfunction in the steering, which requires the use of the authority's locomotives to tow it until the malfunction is repaired, as the two locomotives were pushed into Heliopolis.
A companion 3 to diameter.
The BW LESMES tanker flying the Singapore flag is 295 meters long, 46 meters wide, and its tonnage is 121,000 tons, while the BURRI tanker is about 250 meters long, 44 meters wide, and its tonnage is 67,000 tons.
Rabie sent a message of reassurance regarding the return of regular navigation in the canal from both directions within hours, as the ships of the northern convoy are scheduled to resume their crossing as soon as the BURRI tanker is towed out of the navigational stream.
Rabie concluded his statement by stressing the readiness of the Suez Canal Authority to deal professionally with potential emergencies through an integrated system full of navigational competencies and accumulated experience in marine rescue work and marine units specialized in marine rescue work, navigational insurance, and pollution control.
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