environment
Floating time bomb: An oil spill threatens off the coast of Yemen
The neglected oil tanker “Safer” has been lying off the coast of Yemen for years. Inside the tanker are 1.1 million barrels of crude oil, an amount that could blacken hundreds of kilometers of the Red Sea and its shores in the event of a leak or accident. Photo: -/environmental organization Holm Akhdar/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
A tanker is rusting away – with 1.1 million barrels of crude oil on board. The consequences of an oil spill would be devastating for the environment and people of Yemen. The United Nations are trying to avert the disaster.
The tanker looks spooky. The 350-meter-long colossus swims neglected off the coast of Yemen, rust has eaten into the reddish-brown steel.
Inside the “Safer”: 1.1 million barrels of crude oil and thus an amount that could cover the Red Sea and its coasts with black mud for hundreds of kilometers in the event of a leak or accident. With a conference on Wednesday, the United Nations are trying in a race against time to prevent an imminent environmental catastrophe.
Ecological time bomb
The tanker has actually been in service in Yemen since the 1980s as a Fixed Floating Storage Unit (FSO). It stored oil that came via a pipeline from inland fields and was then exported. But after Yemen descended into civil war in 2015, production and exports were halted. The state oil company SEPOC stopped expensive maintenance, and the “Safer” was decommissioned in 2016 – with 1.1 million barrels of oil on board.
In the meantime, the 45-year-old ship and its cargo have turned into an ecological time bomb. The “risk of a massive oil spill” is imminent, warned UN Emergency Relief Coordinator for Yemen, David Gressly. He predicts a “massive disaster” for the environment and people around a country struggling with the aftermath of years of civil war. On Wednesday, the UN, together with the Netherlands, want to collect money at a donor conference in order to avert the crisis in time.
Time is running out
80 million dollars (about 76 million euros) would be needed to pump the oil from the “Safer” to another ship over several months. The aging tanker would then be towed to a shipyard and sold. After many warnings and delays, also because of the conflict, there is movement in the rescue plan: the Houthi rebels, who have controlled nearby ports since their advance in Yemen, agreed in principle to the UN proposal.
Time is running out. Rust and the delayed maintenance could lead to oil leaks at any time, or the gas accumulated in the tanks could ignite and cause an explosion and large fire. It would then take about a week for the oil slick to reach shores. The already suffering fishing, livelihood for 1.7 million people, would be at an end for the time being, dirty desalination plants would endanger the water supply. The important ports of Hudaydah and Salif would probably have to close for months. That too would be devastating for the country, which imports 90 percent of its food.
Huge oil slick feared
Environmentalists remember the oil spill with the tanker “Exxon Valdez” off Alaska in 1989. In the case of the “Safer” up to four times as much oil could escape. The organization Greenpeace predicts a dramatic scenario for animals, plants and corals in the Red Sea. The ACAPS analysis project estimates that a fire on the “Safer” would contaminate 500 square kilometers of agricultural land. Soot would cover papaya, citrus and mango fruits and endanger corn, tomato or sweet potato crops.
Yemen could never afford clean-up work after such a catastrophe costing around 20 billion dollars (18.9 billion euros). An oil slick up to Saudi Arabia and on the other side of the Bab al-Mandab strait could have completely different consequences: the important shipping route and access to the Suez Canal might have to be closed. For logistics and trade, it would be a dramatic new edition of the “Ever Given” case – the container ship that blocked the Suez Canal for days. Twelve percent of global trade passes through the waterway every day.