Suez Canal Authority says container ship blocking the channel is now completely
The 400-metre-long container ship has been blocking the canal, an essential shipping route, since last Tuesday. Oil prices rose sharply on Friday on concerns about the impact on supplies of crude and refined products
The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said the huge Panamanian container ship that has been blocking the Suez Canal for almost a week has been refloated.
The 400m-long Ever Given has been wedged across the canal since last Tuesday causing a traffic jam of hundreds of ships.
Peter Berdowski, CEO of Dutch salvage company Boskalis, said the Ever Given was refloated at 15:05 (13:05 GMT) on Monday.
Two seagoing and eleven harbour tugs were used in the operation to free the ship, which pictures from Egyptian TV showed is now in a straight position in the canal.
Oil prices (WTI) eased slightly on the news to US$60.16 per barrel.
Of the 39.2mln barrels of oil per day (MMbopd) of total seaborne trade in crude in 2020, 1.74MMbopd went through the Suez Canal, analysts at SP Angel noted, citing tanker tracking firm Kpler.
Additionally, 1.54MMbopd of refined oil products such as gasoline and diesel fuel flow through the canal, about 9% of global seaborne product trade.
Earlier, the Egyptian authorities said ships had started to move along the canal again.
BREAKING : EVER GIVEN ship has been UNSTUCK & Moving into #Suez Canal after 6 Days!!
Egyptian crew managed to float it moments ago. It’s 5:42 am there: pic.twitter.com/GoMlYjQerL
— Joyce Karam (@Joyce_Karam) March 29, 2021
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