Trapped Ship Sends Oil Price Soaring

Tug boats worked on Wednesday to free a giant container ship stuck in the Suez Canal after it veered off course in a sandstorm, creating huge tailbacks on one of the world's busiest trade routes.

Egypt's Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said it was trying to refloat the Taiwan-run, Panama-flagged MV Ever Given, a 400-metre long and 59-metre wide vessel.

Satellite pictures released by Planet Labs Inc show the container ship wedged diagonally across the entire canal.

The blockage of the Suez Canal – which provides passage for 10 percent of all international maritime trade – helped send world oil prices surging 4.6 percent.

The authority said the stranded ship was caught up in a gale-force sandstorm, a common occurence in Egypt's Sinai desert at this time of year, which blotted out light and limited the captain's ability to see.

It was "mainly due to the lack of visibility due to the weather conditions when winds reached 40 knots, which affected the control" of the ship, the SCA said.

The Rotterdam-bound vessel "ran aground after a suspected gust of wind hit it", said its operator Evergreen Marine Corp.

Storms with dense dust clouds carrying fine sand have swept across much of the Middle East since Tuesday.

Shipping monitors MarineTraffic said the vessel had been in the same position since at least Tuesday afternoon.

"Rescue and tug units are continuing their efforts" to free the MV Ever Given, involving at least eight tug boats, Suez Canal Authority chairman Admiral Osama Rabie said on Wednesday morning.

Photographs released by the SCA also showed excavators onshore digging soil from the canal's bank, with the earth-moving equipment dwarfed by the giant hull towering above.

Maritime transport expert Jean-Marie Miossec said the ship was susceptible to strong winds as it stands about 60 metres above the water, as tall as a 15-20 floor building.

A MarineTraffic map showed large clusters of vessels circling in both the Mediterranean to the north and the Red Sea to the south. (AFP)