Syria forced to ration fuel as stricken ship keeps Suez Canal blocked | 2021-03-28 15:21:30 (Visits: 807 Times) |  | | photo:container ship stuck in suez canal.
ships wait in egypt's great bitter lake on thursday
By Magdy Samaan, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Laura Smith-Spark, CNN
Updated 1:31 PM ET, Sun March 28, 2021
Cairo, Egypt (CNN)The paralyzing effect of the stricken Ever Given container ship on global traffic became clear on Sunday as nearby Syria, already scarred by years of war, imposed fuel rationing to safeguard dwindling oil supplies.Suez Canal officials hoped that high tide and dredging efforts could see the giant ship freed on Saturday night, four days after it ran aground. But despite progress the previous night in freeing the rudder and propeller, the vessel remains wedged across the canal.Dredging efforts continued Sunday, according to Ever Given's operator, Evergreen Marine, with attempts to refloat the vessel due to resume from 2 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET).Meanwhile,the backlog of ships awaiting transit through the vital Egyptian waterway has grown to 327, according to Leth Agencies, the canal's service provider.Syria's Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources said the blockage of the Suez Canal had "hindered the oil supplies to Syria and delayed arrival of a tanker carrying oil and oil derivations to Syria," state-run SANA news reported.What it's really like steering the world's biggest ships.What it's really like steering the world's biggest ships.Amid fears over fuel supplies, the Middle Eastern nation has been forced to ration "the available quantities of petroleum derivatives mainly diesel and benzene to ensure their vital availability for the longest possible time," SANA said Saturday.The blockage, in what is one of the world's busiest and most important waterways, could have a major impact on already stretched global supply chains, with disruption escalating with each day that passes.A team of expert salvors from Dutch firm SMIT Salvage and Japan's Nippon Salvage -- who have worked on several high-profile operations in the past -- has been appointed to help the Suez Canal Authoriity re-float the ship, the charter company Evergreen Marine said.We asked kids what they would do free the ship in Suez Canal.We asked kids what they would do free the ship in Suez Canal 01:55.Dredgers have been working to extract vast quantities of sand and mud from around the port side of the 224,000-ton vessel's bow."Having removed more than 20,000 tons of sand and mud, the dredging operation underway has succeeded in loosening the Ever Given's bow within the bank of the Suez Canal and the ship's stern has been cleared from the sand bank," Evergreen Marine said in an update Sunday."The rudder and propeller of the vessel are fully functional and expected to provide additional support to tugboats assigned to move the container ship from the accident site so that normal transit may again resume within the canal."Speaking at a news conference Saturday, SCA chairman Osama Rabie gave details of the rescue operation, which he described as "technically difficult" and "involving many factors.""We are facing a difficult and complicated situation, we work in a rocky soil, the tides are very high, in addition to the huge size of the ship and the number of containers that make it difficult," he said. "We cannot set a specific date for the ship to float, it depends on the ship's response."Around 9,000 tons of ballast water have been removed from the ship, Rabie said, with the dredging taking place during low tides while 14 tugs worked during high tides. Rescue teams managed to temporarily restart the rudder and propellers on Friday night before a low tide stalled their efforts, he said. |
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