Suez Canal

Egypt’s Suez Canal blockage by a massive container vessel, which ran aground the key waterway, could cause some delays in global shipments of commodities.

Iran Press/Africa: The Panama-flagged container vessel Ever Given got stuck in the southern end of the canal while making a turn on Tuesday (5:40 GMT), according to vessel-tracking websites.

At 03:25 GMT on Wednesday, the vessel was still stuck in the canal, which provides the shortest marine route between Europe and Asia, according to data from the tracking website VesselFinders.

Several tugboats have been deployed to help shift the container ship, the data showed.

Ever Given is a 400-meter long and 59-meter wide container ship with a total carrying capacity of around 199,489 deadweight tonnes.

The container ship "has now blocked off a lot of fully-laden tankers from traversing in either direction", trade monitor website TankerTrackers said in a post on Twitter.

"Tankers carrying Saudi, Russian, Omani, and US oil are waiting on both ends," it said.

The Suez Canal and the Suez-Mediterranean Pipeline are strategic routes for Persian Gulf crude oil, petroleum products, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments to Europe and North America.

The canal is a critical chokepoint because of the large volumes of energy commodities that flow through it, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

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