Al Samidoun

The Kuwaiti oil tanker the Al Samidoun, a single hull tanker built in 1992, lost tens of thousands of cubic metres of her cargo of Kuwait heavy in the Suez Canal near Ismailia, north of Lake Amer. The conditions surrounding the accident are little known, and possibilites include collision with a dredger or a wharf. The damaged hull leaked, forming a slick several kilometres long.

Despite contact with the Egyptian authorities and REMPEC, little information was made available about this major pollution incident (organisations, means used, impact...). The Egyptian press highlighted the authorities' concern to avoid the pollution entering the Red Sea, near Suez city. The authorities were informed that the slick had reached Port Saïd (Mediterranean coast). Considerably less international media coverage was devoted to this incident (the second maritime accident in the canal in two months) than to the far less considerable spill which occurred at the same time in Alaska, involving the Malaysian cargo tanker the Selendang Ayu.

This incident did not affect the shipping traffic on the 190 km long canal, which is a busy international route between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, with an average of 50 ships a day.