Ever Given dispute: Agreement in principle reached

The 20,000 TEU containership Ever Given – a giant that got wedged across the Suez Canal – may soon be free to leave the Great Bitter Lake.

The vessel’s P&I insurer, the UK P&I Club released this statement two days ago: “Following extensive discussions with the Suez Canal Authority’s negotiating committee over the past few weeks, an agreement in principle between the parties has been reached.”

“Together with the owner and the ship’s other insurers we are now working with the Suez Canal Authority to finalize a signed settlement agreement as soon as possible. Once the formalities have been dealt with, arrangements for the release of the vessel will be made.”

Details on the amount of compensation the two parties agreed upon were not disclosed.

As previously reported, $916 million in compensation was being sought in exchange for Ever Given’s release.

With a length of 400 meters and a width of nearly 60 meters, the 20,000TEU container vessel Ever Given was wedged in this vital shipping route for six days this March, blocking all shipping traffic.

For the refloating of the 224,000-ton container vessel, approximately 30,000 cubic meters of sand was dredged to help free the vessel and a total of eleven harbor tugs and two powerful seagoing tugs (Alp Guard and Carlo Magna) were deployed.

The intense salvage effort has focused on removing sand from below the front and rear of the ship, while also pulling the ship with tugboats.

Workers managed to free the rear part of the ship first, swinging the stern into the canal while the bow was still stuck in the sloping sand that forms the side of the canal.