UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- The UN-coordinated plan to prevent a massive oil spill in the Red Sea from the Safer oil tanker off Yemen has received the first contribution from the private sector, said a UN spokesman on Thursday.
The multinational HSA Group has announced that it will donate 1.2 million U.S. dollars for the endeavor.
"We very much welcome this contribution, which brings us to 64 million dollars raised so far for the operation," said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
"We have less than 16 million dollars that are needed to reach the 80-million-dollar target to start the emergency operation to transfer the oil from the Safer tanker to a much safer vessel. Sixteen million dollars in the grand scheme of things is not much money. I'm sure there are a whole bunch of people around the world who could help," he added.
The United Nations is also looking carefully at how to reduce the cost of the emergency operation, as well as for the second phase of the plan that will ensure a safe longer-term replacement capacity for the Safer tanker, said the spokesman.
The United Nations asks donors that have pledged funds to disburse them urgently and that others that can contribute to do so as soon as possible. The emergency operation cannot be implemented without the necessary funding, he said.
The Safer, currently carrying more than 1 million barrels of oil, has been moored off the port of Hodeidah since 1988 as a crude oil storage and offloading platform. It has not been inspected or maintained since 2015.
In May 2020, seawater leaked into the engine room. A temporary fix by divers from the Safer corporation succeeded in containing the leak. But the fix was not supposed to hold for long. ■
