A Yemen's coast guard boat sails past the FSO Safer, a decaying super oil tanker, moored at the Ras Issa port in Hodeidah province, Yemen, on May 30, 2023. A UN ship arrives for an operation to transfer over 1 million barrels of crude oil from the vessel. (Photo by Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua)
A UN ship has arrived at the site of a decaying super oil tanker moored off the Red Sea coast of Hodeidah in western Yemen since 2015, in a bid to transfer over 1 million barrels of crude oil from the ship to prevent an oil spill.
SANAA, May 30 (Xinhua) -- A United Nations (UN) ship arrived on Tuesday at the site of the floating storage and offloading (FSO) Safer vessel, a decaying super oil tanker, off the coast of Ras Issa, Hodeidah in western Yemen.
The UN office in Yemen said in a statement that the ship, an engineering vessel called "Ndeavor," had arrived from the east African country of Djibouti across the Red Sea to make the first preparations for an emergency rescue plan.
Engineers hired by the UN stand on board an engineer ship that arrives at the site of FSO Safer, a decaying super oil tanker, at the Ras Issa port in Hudeidah province, Yemen, on May 30, 2023. (Photo by Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua)
The statement said the ship would start working soon to make the super oil tanker safer before the extraction process begins.
Meantime, a UN employee in Yemen confirmed to Xinhua that the plan to unload oil from the severely deteriorating ship would not start in the next few days, as Ndeavor's job is to create a safer and better condition for the next phase.
The UN is still appealing to the international community to raise more money to fund the crucial operation.
A UN ship arrives at the site of FSO Safer to prepare for an operation to transfer over 1 million barrels of crude oil from the decaying super oil tanker at the Ras Issa port in Hudeidah province, Yemen, on May 30, 2023. (Photo by Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua)
The FSO Safer, anchored in the Red Sea off the coast of Hodeidah, has not undergone maintenance since 2015 due to the ongoing conflict in Yemen. The deteriorating and dilapidated supertanker has been labeled a "floating time bomb" by the UN, as it poses a significant risk of explosion or an oil spill, potentially causing a catastrophe four times as disastrous as the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident in the Red Sea.
A statement by the UN Development Programme warned that a major spill would devastate fishing communities along Yemen's Red Sea coast, resulting in the loss of 200,000 livelihoods overnight, with fish stocks taking 25 years to recover. It would also lead to the closure of the essential ports of Hodeidah and Saleef, which are crucial for bringing food, fuel, and life-saving supplies into Yemen, where 17 million people need food assistance.
David Greasly (C), the UN representative in Yemen, speaks to the press upon his arrival at the site of FSO Safer, a decaying super oil tanker, at the Ras Issa port in Hudeidah province, Yemen, on May 30, 2023. (Photo by Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua)
The UN said in March that it had purchased a super oil tanker, named "Nautica," to offload the over one-million-barrel crude oil on FSO Safer.
In April, the UN said it had received firm commitments for 95 million U.S. dollars for the FSO Safer rescue plan, adding it still needs another 34 million dollars to continue the project.
Sea birds perch on the rusty base of the FSO Safer, a decaying super oil tanker, at the Ras Issa port in Hodeidah province, Yemen, on May 30, 2023. (Photo by Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua)
The photo shows the tools and equipment of the UN ship which arrives at the site of the FSO Safer to prepare for an operation to transfer crude oil from the decaying super oil tanker at the Ras Issa port in Hudeidah province, Yemen, on May 30, 2023. (Photo by Mohammed Mohammed/Xinhua) ■
