A fire broke out at a port in Egypt on Wednesday, with damage reported at a gas terminal, but authorities did not comment on what caused the incident.
The fire affected two ships at the port of Damietta in the Nile Delta – a storage tanker and a vessel used to turn liquid fuel into gas.
Egypt's Petroleum Ministry said the fire was under control, with no casualties reported. Petroleum Minister Karim Badawi was inspecting the site late on Wednesday.
Kpler, an energy analytics firm, said the two ships had been damaged and “operations disrupted” at Damietta, one of Egypt's main terminals for importing gas. It said both were moved offshore as authorities assess the situation.
Security company Ambrey said the US-owned storage tanker had been hit by a drone. Reuters, quoting trading sources, reported the drone had hit the storage tanker Energos Winter, causing a fire that then spread to the second vessel, Gaslog Salem.
The Energos Winter is a floating storage and regasification unit, owned by US company firm Energos Infrastructure. Its technical, safety and commercial operations are managed by Wilhelmsen Ship Management, also a US company.
Any drone attack in Egypt could bring a serious escalation of the Middle East war but there was no official confirmation.
The conflict has broadened in recent days as Yemen's Houthi rebels attacked Red Sea shipping before the US and Saudi Arabia carried out strikes on Iraq. The expansion followed a resumption of US and Iranian attacks across the Arabian Gulf, which ended at the weekend after 13 consecutive nights of strikes.
