Page 13 - MEOG Week 13 2021

MEOG PIPELINES & TRANSPORT MEOG

Suez reopens as Ever

Given is refloated

GLOBAL THE Chinese container ship Ever Given, which Netherlands-based Smit Salvage carried out
had blocked the Suez Canal for the past week, work to refloat and straighten Ever Given, with
has been refloated, allowing hundreds of waiting CEO Peter Berdowski saying: “The time pres-
vessels to begin using the waterway. sure to complete this operation was evident and
Speaking to reporters on March 29, Suez unprecedented.”
Canal Authority (SCA) chairman Osama Rabie
said that the backlog of 422 ships could be Impact
cleared within three and a half days. While the global supply chain fallout of the
The 400-metre-long Ever Given became canal’s blockage has yet to be calculated, its effect
lodged diagonally across the canal south of on oil prices was short-lived, with gains lost amid
the Great Bitter Lake because of high winds on uncertainty about the direction of this week’s
March 23. OPEC+ meeting.
Following the vessel’s refloating, Taiwan’s However, the logjam caused import-depend-
Evergreen Line, which is leasing the container- ent Syria to begin fuel rationing, as the country
ship, said it would be inspected for seaworthi- had already been facing oil shortages. Prior to
ness, with decisions about its cargo to follow once the blockage, Syrian fuel prices had already risen
investigations into the incident were completed. by more than 50% in mid-March, with previous
SCA’s Rabie noted: “The ship was ready for shipments from Iran having been targeted by
limited navigation after an initial inspection and Israeli forces.
not a single container was damaged, but a second Syria’s Oil Ministry said that “the ministry is
investigation will be more precise and if it was rationing the distribution of available oil prod-
affected it will show.” ucts” with a tanker carrying fuel from Iran held
He added: “Strong winds and weather factors up in the backlog. Oil Minister Bassam Tomeh
were not the main reasons for the ship’s ground- said that the cargo had been expected to arrive at
ing; there may have been technical or human the port of Baniyas on March 26.™
errors.” Image: AP

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