CAIRO: Egyptian authorities on Sunday used three tugboats to tow an oil tanker after its engines failed while navigating the Suez Canal.
Adm. Osama Rabie, head of the Suez Canal Authority, said that shipping traffic in the canal is now normal in both directions.
The tanker, the 274-meter-long Seavigour, which sails under a Maltese flag, is undergoing repairs, and will resume its journey when work is completed, he added.
More than 60 ships, with a total net tonnage of 3.5 million tons, crossed the canal on Sunday.
In March, tugboats refloated a container vessel, Msc Istanbul, which ran aground in the canal while sailing from Malaysia to Portugal.
A huge container ship, the Ever Given, blocked the canal for six days, disrupting global trade, after it ran aground during high winds in 2021.
The Suez Canal, one of the world’s busiest waterways, is the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia, and is involved in about 10 percent of global maritime trade.
