1.   Since then another shipment has transited the canal without incident.

2.   Paul Sullivan, an economist at the American University in Cairo, notes that the volume of oil and gas transiting the canal has been declining for a decade.

3.   It also has lost some traditional business to supertankers and large cargo vessels that are too big to transit the canal.

4.   Use of pipelines has reduced the number of ships transiting the canal.