Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, has ordered preparations for lightening the cargo of the giant container ship grounded in the Suez Canal, the head of the canal’s authority told local media on Sunday.

There is no definitive answer to how long it will take to free the vessel.

Asked when they expect to free the vessel and reopen the canal, Lieutenant General Osama Rabei, the head of the Suez Canal Authority, said: “I can’t say because I do not know.”

Lt Gen Rabei said he remained hopeful that dredging could free the ship without having to resort to removing its cargo, but added that “we are in a difficult situation, it’s a bad incident.”

Shoei Kisen, the company that owns the vessel, said it was considering removing containers if other refloating efforts failed.

That would effectively lift the ship to make it easier to pull free.

It is expected to take 1-2 days to clear the backlog of moored ships.

Syria has begun rationing the distribution of fuel amid concerns that shipments could be delayed because of the blockage of the Suez Canal. 

Even before the Ever Given ran aground, Syria had been suffering from fuel shortages mostly caused by Western sanctions.

The oil ministry said that fuel is being rationed to allow basic services in Syria to continue. These include bakeries, hospitals, water services and telecommunications centres.

These images, provided by Maxar Technologies, show the sheer size of the vessel and difficulties authorities are having in shifting it.

Just one in 10 of the vessels affected by delays along the canal are covered for disruption, shipping insurance insiders are said to have estimated.

With around $10bn worth of goods normally expected to use the Egyptian cut-through each day, and hundreds of vessels now waiting on either side of the Ever Given, the costs of the crisis are mounting.

Costs include those firms that are paying to hire vessels which are now stationary, and the associated loss of earning potential.

The circumstances that led up to the vessel becoming wedged in the muddy canal bank are unclear and conflicting.

Initial investigations suggest the vessel grounded due to strong wind.

Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, the “technical manager” the vessel, said strong winds were thought to be the primary culprit.

The company maintains that “initial investigations rule out any mechanical or engine failure as a cause of the grounding”.

However, on Saturday, the head of the Suez Canal Authority told journalists that strong winds were “not the only cause” for the Ever Given running aground.

Lieutenant General Osama Rabei said an investigation is ongoing but did not rule out human or technical error.

At least one initial report suggested a “blackout” struck the vessel, which was carrying some 20,000 containers at the time of the incident.

While the stranded vessel is now a global news story, it is very much a local issue for the Egyptian town of Manshiyet Rugola, which lies right next to where the Ever Given is now stuck.

The crisis has brought drama to the town of 5,000 people and many of its inhabitants have spent the last few days watching tugs and diggers try and fail to free the ship.

“Why don’t they pull out one of those containers?” 65-year-old Umm Gaafar told The New York Times. “There could be something good in there. Maybe it could feed the town.”

Youssef Ghareeb, a 19-year-old factory worker, told the paper: “The whole village was out there watching. We’ve got so used to having her around, because we’ve been living on our rooftops just watching the ship for four days.”

Another resident whose name was only given as Nadia added: “When it lights up at night, it’s like the Titanic.”

Two additional tugboats are speeding to the location of the Ever Given on Sunday to aid efforts to free the huge container ship which has been wedged across the vital waterway for days.

The Dutch-flagged Alp Guard and the Italian-flagged Carlo Magno, called in to help tugboats already there, reached the Red Sea near the city of Suez early on Sunday, satellite data from MarineTraffic.com showed.

The ship’s management company, Bernhard Schulte (BSM), said 11 tugs were working throughout the day on Saturday alongside the ongoing dredging operations, which continue to remove sand and mud from around the port side of the vessel’s bow.

At a press conference, the Suez Canal Authority said 14 tugs – three higher than BSM’s figure – had been working to free the vessel yesterday.

There were 327 vessels held up on either side of the Ever Given as of Sunday morning.

Of those, 134 are near Port Said on the northern end of the canal, at the mouth to the Mediterranean.

Forty-two are waiting in Great Bitter Lake, around two-thirds of the way along the stretch of waterway heading south in the direction of Suez.

And 151 are waiting at the southern end near the port town of Suez.

Two attempts to free the Ever Given failed on Saturday night despite hopes the high tide could give the efforts a boost.

Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, the ship’s management company, said around a dozen tugboats had worked on Saturday alongside dredging operations that were removing sand and mud from around the left side of the vessel’s bow.

But despite the favourable conditions, they were unsuccessful.