Crude Oil Tanker Briefly Grounds and Blocks Suez Canal

A crude oil tanker grounded in the Suez Canal in nearly the exact location as where the Ever Given grounded in March of last year. But it appears she’s on the move again after about 5 hours blocking the canal.

AIS data from MarineTraffic is showed the Singapore-flagged crude oil tanker Affinity V was straddling the canal with its status as “Aground”. The ship is in the southern end of the Canal where there is only one lane.

Yoooo. The crude oil tanker Affinity V is aground in the Suez Canal in almost the exact same spot as Ever Given!! pic.twitter.com/ODaGkTus82

— Mike Schuler (@MikeSchuler) August 31, 2022

The Affinity V is a 114,070 dwt tanker measuring 252 meters long by 45 meters wide It’s draft is reported to be 11.2 meters.

It now appears as though she is on the move again after blocking the canal for about 5 hours:

REUTERS: NAVIGATION NORMAL IN SUEZ CANAL AFTER SHIP THAT RAN AGROUND REFLOATED – EGYPT STATE TV CITING CANAL AUTHORITY

Ever since the Ever Given’s grounding, the Suez Canal Authority has been beefing up its tug fleet and working to widen portions of the Canal to allow for two-way traffic. It seems the investment on tugs paid off big time today.

This is a developing story…