UPDATE 8 on Ever Given - High tide offers Best chance of moving Ever Given tonight

Efforts to dislodge the stuck container ship Ever Given had allowed its stern and rudder to move on Saturday, but it remained unclear when it could be refloated, the head of the canal authority told a press conference Saturday in Suez.

CURRENT POSITION of Ever Given

High tide offered the best chance of moving Ever Given tonight

The next two hours will offer the best opportunity to free the Ever Given tonight, according to the head of the Suez Canal Authority.

Tides will be at the highest at around 10pm local time (8pm UK time) and the strong wind could help the ship move towards the northeast, SCA chief Osama Rabei told local media.

Container ship Ever Given stuck in Suez Canal

Container ship Ever Given stuck in Suez Canal - refloating efforts continue

The ship has already moved 30 meters towards the north, according to Egypt Today. Last night the propeller and rudder were freed by a salvage team.

He said they could not lay out a set timetable for when the ship might be dislodged but that he remained hopeful that a dredging operation could free the ship without having to resort to lighten it by removing its cargo.

Container ship Ever Given stuck in Suez Canal - refloating efforts continue

Rabei also said that 14 tug boats were now operating, while rescue operations managed to dig enough into the soil to free the rudder and the propeller.

“We expect that at any time the ship could slide and move from the spot it is in,” he added.

A maritime traffic jam grew to over 350 vessels near Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea, Port Suez on the Red Sea and in the canal system on Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake, Rabei said.

Authorities had not ruled out that “technical or human errors” could be behind the grounding of the vessel.

“Strong winds and weather factors were not the main reasons for the ship’s grounding, there may have been technical or human errors,” he also said.

Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly on Saturday thanked foreign partners for offers to help refloat the ship.

Ships in Suez Canal

There had been “no reports of pollution or cargo damage and initial investigations rule out any mechanical or engine failure as a cause of the grounding”.

Crews had been seen working through the night, using a large dredging machine under floodlights.

But the vessel with gross tonnage of 219,000 and deadweight of 199,000 has yet to budge.

The Suez Canal Authority has said it welcomes international assistance. The White House offered to help Egypt reopen the canal.

“We have equipment and capacity that most countries don’t have and we’re seeing what we can do and what help we can be,” US President Joe Biden told reporters.

The Egyptian government has agreed to “an offer of help”, adding that the US Navy in the region plans to send “an assessment team of dredging experts to the Suez Canal as soon as Saturday”.