The 19-day operation will pump more than a million barrels from the rusty Safer, which was abandoned more than eight years ago, to a nearby replacement vessel.
Secretary General António Guterres said the United Nations had carried out sophisticated operation because an oil spill would cause an environmental disaster for the region.
‘Time bomb’
“The United Nations has begun an operation to defuse what may be the world’s largest ticking time bomb. This is joint task and the culmination of nearly two years of political foundation buildingfundraising and project development,” the UN chief said.
Located north of the Yemeni port of Hudaydah, United Nations officials have warned for years about the possibility that the 47-year-old tanker could crack and explode.
The supertanker holds four times as much oil as the Exxon Valdez – enough to make it the fifth-largest spill from a tanker in history.
Existing marine threat
UNDP warned that a major spill from Safer would destroy marine life in the Red Sea. Speaking to reporters in Geneva, spokeswoman Sarah Bel expressed concern for the fishing communities of Yemen’s Red Coast, which are already living in a state of crisis, because an oil spill would ‘wipe out 200,000 livelihoods instantly” and “fish stocks will take 25 years to recover.”
Describing the operation as the first of its kind, she was cautious during this “emergency period” but assured reporters that everything was in place to “ensure success”.
FSO Safer has been anchored about 4.8 nautical miles southwest of the Ras Issa peninsula on Yemen’s west coast for more than 30 years. In 2015, the production and maintenance of the tanker was halted due to the eight-year conflict between the pro-Saudi government coalition and the Houthi rebels. As a result, the ship is currently not repairable.
FSO Safer, moored off the west coast of Yemen.
Humanitarian and environmental disaster
According to the UNDP, an oil spill would result in the closure of all ports in the region, cutting off food, fuel and other lifesaving supplies to Yemen, a country where 80% of the population depends on aid.
The head of the United Nations warned that cleanup costs alone would be $20 billion and said that shipping to the Suez Canal could be disrupted for weeks.
Praising the project’s trans-UN cooperation, he stressed the “non-stop political work” it entails “in a country ravaged by eight years of war.” But note that this is only a “major milestone in the journey”, as the next step involves securing the replacement vessel to a dedicated safety buoy.
The United Nations Secretary-General has called for an additional $20 million to complete the project, including removing Safer and eliminating any remaining environmental threats to the Red Sea.
