* Fire causes no injuries or fatalities, Egypt’s petroleum
ministry says
* Strike hits Energos Winter and fire spreads to Gaslog
Salem, trading sources say
* Energos Winter stores 138,250 cubic metres of gas, company
details show
LONDON/CAIRO, July 29 (Reuters) – A drone hit a U.S.-owned
gas storage tanker at Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Damietta,
British maritime security firm Ambrey said on Wednesday, in an
initial assessment that could signal a further spread of
conflict across the Middle East.
A statement from Egypt’s petroleum ministry confirmed a fire at
the port but made no mention of a drone attack and did not
provide a cause for the incident.
Port services firm Inchcape said in a separate message two
gas tankers had caught fire at Damietta.
The drone hit floating storage tanker Energos Winter,
causing a fire that spread to another vessel, Gaslog Salem,
three trading sources familiar with the incident said. Two
separate security sources said the likely cause of the blast was
assessed as a drone strike.
The Energos Winter was reportedly struck by an unidentified
projectile on its starboard side, causing a fire that was
extinguished, British maritime risk management group Vanguard
said.
It was unclear who was responsible for the incident, which
occurred shortly after Iran carried out a missile attack against
U.S. forces in Jordan, and Washington and Saudi Arabia struck
Iran-backed paramilitary groups in Iraq.
U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to retaliate against
Iran and Yemen’s Houthi group declared a naval blockade on Saudi
Arabia, apparently spreading the conflict to its widest since
U.S. and Israel started bombing Iran in February.
Through a video posted on social media, Reuters was able to
verify the location by the port infrastructure, the storage
tanks and ship tracking data that matched the archive and
satellite imagery.
The identity of the vessels was confirmed as “ENERGOS WINTER
(IMO: 9256614)” and “GASLOG SALEM (IMO: 9638915)” by the mast,
stern, hull and foredeck that matched archive imagery. The date
was confirmed by corroborating media reports and Egypt’s
petroleum ministry confirmed a fire at the port. No older
versions of the videos were found posted online before July 29.
The Energos Winter is a floating storage and regasification
unit (FSRU) with storage capacity of 138,250 cubic metres. It is
owned by U.S.-based firm Energos Infrastructure. Its technical,
safety and commercial operations are managed by Wilhelmsen Ship
Management, also a U.S. company.
Egypt’s petroleum ministry said in a statement a fire broke
out on a gasification vessel and a storage vessel at Damietta
port and was dealt with immediately under approved emergency
response plans by firefighting and security teams.
Petroleum Minister Karim Badawi went to the site to oversee
response efforts, it said. The fire caused no injuries or
fatalities and emergency and technical teams were continuing to
work on the response and assess the impact of the incident, the
statement added.
(Reporting by Jonathan Saul, Marwa Rashad and Mohamed Ezz;
Editing by Alex Richardson and David Gregorio)
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