The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) has reported that a minor collision occurred in the canal in the early morning hours of Wednesday. It involved the LNG carrier BW Lesmes and the tanker Burri that followed. Traffic was quickly able to resume.
The Burri hit the LNG carrier after the latter made a sudden stop in the water way at km 144 (Canal marking) due to a technical failure in steering and machinery, which led to loss of steering. The failures coincided with a strong water current that led the tanker Burri to make slight contact with the broken-down LNG carrier, reports the SCA.
‘We’ve immediately handled the breakdowns sustained by an LNG carrier and a tanker during their transit through the Canal,’ says Adm. Ossama Rabiee, Chairman and Managing Director of the SCA. He adds that the SCA’s maritime salvage tugboats were able to immediately handle the navigational emergencies and technical failure sustained by the LNG carrier.
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Salvage operation
The tugboats towed and moored the tanker Burri, while connecting the tow lines of four other tugboats to the broken-down carrier Lesmes. These four tugs – the salvage tugboat Ezzat Adel with a bollard pull of 160 tonnes, and the tugs Mosaheb 2, Suez 1 and Suez 2 – then towed the LNG carrier out of the navigational waterway.
The SCA states that initial inspections have showed that there were no significant damages or any pollution incidents in the vicinity of the LNG carrier and the tanker. However, the crew of the tanker Burri has reported a sudden steering failure that requires the towing assistance of SCA tugboats until the failure is repaired.
The Singapore-flagged LNG carrier BW Lesmes is 295 metres long, 46 metres in width, and is of a tonnage of 121,000 tonnes, while the tanker Burri is approximately 250 metres in length, 44 metres in width, and is of a tonnage of 67,000 tonnes.
Traffic returned to normal just a few hours after the incident.
Pictures by the SCA.
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