By Jonathan Saul, Marwa Rashad and Mohamed Ezz
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)
