Tankers collide on the Suez Canal

A gas tanker collided with a product tanker last night on the Suez Canal with the giant 295 m long BW Lesmes LNG carrier briefly straddling both banks of the waterway in a grim reminder of 2021’s Ever Given grounding incident. 

The Suez Canal Authority was able to quickly deploy tugboats and traffic resumed along the canal within a few hours. 

According to MarineTraffic, the accident happened between the Burri product tanker and BW Lesmes. The Suez Canal Authority said one of the ships had broken down without identifying which one. 

MarineTraffic issued a time-lapse of the accident which suggests it was the gas carrier which broke down. The video shows the Burri turning to port and colliding with the BW Lesmes which was already lying across the waterway. 

The canal has had an eventful year in terms of the number of accidents with groundings far more numerous than in previous years.