Traffic of cargo vessels through Egypt's Suez Canal has been blocked after a large container ship ran aground in the southern end of the Canal on Tuesday.
Tug boats were deployed to help the herculean task of shifting the 200,000-tonne vessel - the Ever Given, which is 400 meter long and 59 meter wide.
Port agents GAC said that Suez Canal tugs have been working to free the fully loaded vessel but wind conditions and its size are hindering the operation. "So far, no progress has been made," GAC said on its website.
The huge vessel with a capacity to carry 20000 containers is said to be fully-loaded.
The Panama-registered ship, sailing from China to the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, reportedly suffered a blackout before entering the Mediterranean at about 7:40 a.m. local time.
Ever Given's owner Evergreen Marine said the ship was "suspected of being hit by a sudden strong wind, causing the hull to deviate... and accidentally hit the bottom and run aground".
The accident caused a traffic jam in one of the world's most important and busy waterways, through which at least 50 vessels pass by every day.
A number of vessels carrying 10 million barrels of Saudi, Russian, US and Omani crude oil are held up in the route.
"15 ships are waiting at anchorages. There is currently no indication of when the Canal will be clear and transits will be able to resume," according to GAC.
Oil prices, after tumbling on Tuesday, climbed about 2% on Wednesday over fears of crude oil supply disruptions.
TankerTrackers.com, Inc. said the parallel lane in the Suez Canal will not help the situation because the two canals only exist between the Mediterranean Sea and the Bitter Lakes. "The EVER GIVEN vessel is stuck in the single lane between the Red Sea and the Bitter Lakes," it tweeted.
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