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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Volatility hits oil amid Suez mishap
A photograph shows the size of the MV Ever Given in relation to nearby buildings as it continued to block the Suez Canal yesterday. Photo: Reuters TV via Reuters
/ Bloomberg
Oil yesterday retreated as traders monitored efforts to dislodge the MV Ever Given container ship blocking the Suez Canal, after two wild days that saw prices whipsaw about 6 percent in both directions.
Futures in New York trading slid 1.6 percent, the latest sizeable move this week.
The bounce in oil following the canal incident gave the market a much needed breather after a series of factors, including softening demand, combined to drive prices to a six-week low on Tuesday.
Satellite pictures released by Planet Labs Inc showed the 59m-wide ship wedged diagonally across the entire canal.
Japanese ship-leasing firm Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd said that it owned the vessel and was facing “extreme difficulty” trying to refloat it.
“In cooperation with local authorities and Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, a vessel management company, we are trying to refloat [the ship], but we are facing extreme difficulty,” Shoei Kisen Kaisha said in a statement on its Web site. “We sincerely apologize for causing a great deal of worry to ships in the Suez Canal and those planning to go through the canal.”
A MarineTraffic map showed large clusters of vessels circling as they waited in the Mediterranean to the north and the Red Sea to the south.
Historic sections of the canal were reopened in a bid to ease the bottleneck, with dozens of ships waiting at both ends of the waterway.
Only one liquefied natural gas （LNG） tanker was stuck inside the Suez Canal behind the Ever Given, but there are signs that the blockage is beginning to disrupt global LNG flows.
The Golar Tundra, which loaded the gas in Egypt, had been scheduled to arrive in Pakistan by the end of the month, traders with knowledge of the matter said.
Pakistan is in discussions with its supplier about finding an alternative cargo, they said.
Apart from the Golar Tundra, there are seven LNG tankers near the entrances to the canal, ship-tracking data showed.
About 8 percent of the global supply of the fuel passes through the waterway, and the only other option is a trip around southern Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.
The canal drastically shortens travel between Asia and Europe.
For example, the route from Singapore to Rotterdam is 6,000km and up to two weeks shorter than going around Africa.
“We’ve never seen anything like it before,” said Ranjith Raja, Middle East oil and shipping researcher at international financial data firm Refinitiv. “It is likely that the congestion ... will take several days or weeks to sort out.”
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
