Egypt Protests Threaten Suez Canal? Suez Canal Website Down

Tanker stocks surged Friday as investors speculated that the civil unrest in Egypt could lead to a shutdown of the Suez Canal, an incident that would likely spark a sharp uptick in demand for ships.

The Suez Canal is a key transit point for oil and fuel shipments from the Persian Gulf to the Western Hemisphere, and a closure there would mean ships would have to travel around the southern tip of Africa instead, adding thousands of miles to their journeys, and likely tightening shipping capacity.

There doesn't appear to be any solid indication the canal is in danger of shutting down, but it's seen as a possibility as protestors rallied in the streets of Egypt for the fourth straight day against President Hosni Mubarak.

Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised the canal in 1956 and transferred it to the Suez Canal Authority, intending to finance the dam project using revenue from the canal. This led up to the Suez Crisis, in which the UK, France and Israel invaded Egypt. The intention was for Israel to invade on the ground, and for the Anglo-French partnership to give air and other support, later to intervene to resolve the crisis and control the canal.[citation needed] To save the British from what he thought was a disastrous action, and to stop the war from a possible escalation, Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs, Lester B. Pearson, proposed the creation of the very first United Nations peacekeeping force to ensure access to the canal for all and an Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai.

About 1 million barrels of crude oil and refined petroleum products a day moved northbound through the canal to the Mediterranean Sea in 2009. About 800,000 bpd of similar cargoes flowed south to the Red Sea.

* Crude oil and refined petroleum products accounted for 16 percent of Suez cargoes by tonnage.

* Canal is 1,000 feet (305 meters) at its narrowest point and can't handle very large crude oil carriers.