Today officials are sounding more optimistic about when the blocked at the Suez Canal may open.  CBS News writes:

Mohab Mamish, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s advisor on seaports and the former chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, told the AFP news agency on Thursday that navigation through the canal “will resume again within 48-72 hours, maximum.” 

Mamish cited his “experience with several rescue operations of this kind” and said he knew “every centimeter of the canal.”

Still, some experts are predicting it could take a lot longer to nudge the ship that has been stuck in the canal for four days. The New York Times reports:

Peter Berdowski, the chief executive of Royal Boskalis Westminster, which has been appointed by Ever Given’s owner to help move the vessel, told the Dutch current affairs program Nieuwsuur on Wednesday that the operation to free the ship could take “days, even weeks.”

Mr. Berdowski, whose company has been involved in expanding the Suez Canal, said that Ever Given was stuck on both shallow sides of the V-shaped waterway. Fully loaded with 20,000 containers, the ship “is a very heavy beached whale,” he said.

Some ships are now diverting around the canal, but it’s a costly operation that is already having global consequences. CNBC reports:

The shipping delays could impact everything from the clothes and shoes you ordered online to gym equipment, electronics, food, and energy supplies — meaning gas prices could get higher, too.

Watch more from NBC News above.