Pumping operations to transfer a million barrels of crude from a dilapidated oil tanker off war-torn Yemen, in a bid to avert an oil spill, began on Tuesday and are expected to last around three weeks, the UN said.
“The United Nations has begun an operation to defuse what could be the biggest ticking time bomb in the world,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement. “A complex operation is underway in the Red Sea, off the coast of war-torn Yemen, to transfer one million barrels of oil from FSO Safer to a replacement vessel,” he added.
A half-century-old boat
47 years old, the FSO Safer has been moored since the 1980s off the strategic port of Hodeida (west). Its maintenance was interrupted in 2015 with the war that plunged the country into one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. The boat, whose hull is rusty, contains four times more oil than the Exxon Valdez which ran aground in 1989 off the coast of Alaska.
The transfer of 1.14 million barrels of crude from the FSO Safer to the new vessel is expected to take around three weeks. The UN hopes that this operation, the cost of which is estimated at 143 million dollars, will make it possible to avoid an environmental catastrophe whose clean-up would cost 20 billion dollars, according to the same source.
Disrupted maritime traffic?
An oil spill would wreak havoc on Yemen’s wildlife, fishing villages and vital ports. It could also disrupt international maritime traffic between the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the Suez Canal, which leads to the Mediterranean. For years, the reduced crew of seven or eight people remaining on the ship have been trying to prevent any leaks or explosions that would release an oil slick into the Red Sea.
In March, the UN purchased a replacement ship, the Nautica, to transfer oil from the derelict Safer. Two months later, experts from the private company SMIT Salvage arrived to ensure that the Safer could withstand this operation. Even if the crude transfer is successful, the Safer will still pose an “environmental threat” as it contains “viscous hydrocarbon residues and is at risk of shattering”, the UN warned.
Once the pumping is complete, the question of ownership of this black gold will then arise, as the rivalry between the Iran-backed Houthi rebels and the Saudi-backed government forces continues to rage, although fighting has largely subsided on the ground.