A SANCTIONED suezmax laden with Russian crude briefly halted traffic in the Suez Canal on Tuesday before tugs helped remove it from a narrow lane on the canal’s north end.

Lloyd’s List Intelligence vessel-tracking data showed the Russia-flagged, 150,581 dwt Komander (formerly Prudence) (IMO: 9271585), stopped moving around 0914 hrs UTC in a section of the channel just south of the Al Salam Bridge, where there is no separation between lanes. 

Other vessels sailing north through the canal at the time stopped moving for about two to three hours, the vessel-tracking data showed. Several tugs arrived at Komander’s location following the incident, and the vessel began moving southwards again around 1115 hrs accompanied by the tugs. As of 1530 hrs UTC, Komander was stopped about nine nautical miles north of Ismailia.

The Suez Canal Authority said in a post on X that Komander suffered an engine malfunction and grounded around 09:30 UTC. Five SCA-owned tugs were immediately deployed to refloat the vessel, while a sixth tug towed it, the SCA said.

The 2004-built Komander is sanctioned by the US, UK and EU. It is laden with about 1m barrels of Russian crude loaded in Murmansk and bound for China, according to commodities analytics provider Vortexa. 

Komander had a four-day period where it did not transmit Automatic Identification System data at the anchorage north of Port Said, a hotspot for ship-to-ship transfers of sanctioned Russian oil. It was not immediately clear whether the vessel engaged in any STS transfers during the period, but it did not indicate a draught change following the four-day gap.

* Lloyd’s List defines a tanker as being part of the Shadow Fleet if it engages in one or more deceptive shipping practices indicating that it is involved in the facilitation of sanctioned oil cargoes from Iran, Russia or Venezuela. Or it is sanctioned for participation in sanctioned oil trades or is sanctioned for links to a company that is sanctioned for facilitating the export of sanctioned oil.