Suez Canal salvage operation could take weeks

By Michael McGrady, Maritime Direct Americas & Pacific Correspondent

CAIRO — The Suez Canal’s ongoing crisis could take several days, maybe weeks, to resolve notes several media reports citing experts and industry leaders.

The MV Ever Given made international headlines a few days back when it was reported that the massive boxship ran aground in the Egyptian-controlled Suez Canal. The ship was hit by a strong sandstorm and was reportedly blown by strong winds of about 27 knots, causing the skyscraper-sized vessel to lose control. As a consequence, the incident caused the obstruction.

The Maritime Executive reports, citing Dutch language news media reports on the Ever Given, that the Suez crisis could become a structure of the canal’s landscape for the salvage operation’s duration.

“We can’t exclude it might take weeks, depending on the situation,” said Peter Berdowski, chief executive of the Dutch company Boskalis. Boskalis was contracted to help with the salvage efforts.

His comments were made on Dutch television via reporting from wire services at Reuters.

This means that the congestion caused by the obstruction will have global impacts.

“The ship, with the weight it now has, can’t really be pulled free. You can forget it,” he said, appearing on the Dutch current affairs news program “Nieuwsuur,” as mentioned above.

“This is not an Amsterdam-Rhine Canal where you have the same depth over the entire width. You are dealing with an avenue in the middle that is up to 25 meters deep, but soon after that, it goes to 15 meters, to 11 meters, and then even less towards the ends.”

“The ship is 15.7 meters deep. Especially at the front the ship is one meter on the slope. “