UN neutralizes threat from Yemen’s aging oil tanker

The UN has announced that the decaying FSO Safer tanker off the western coastlines of Yemen has been successfully emptied of its cargo and that the rescue team has departed the site, effectively neutralizing the tanker’s threat to the Red Sea.

“It is an honor to be aboard the multipurpose vessel Ndeavor with the professionals that successfully carried out the #FSOSafer salvage operation and are now on the way home. We left Yemeni waters at 1813 today,” David Gressly, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Yemen, said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, on Monday.

THANK YOU @beleefboskalis SMIT SALVAGE FOR A JOB WELL DONE! It is an honor to be aboard the multipurpose vessel Ndeavor with the professionals that successfully carried out the #FSOSafer salvage operation and are now on the way home. We left Yemeni waters at 1813 today. pic.twitter.com/BpSYahGrHn

— David Gressly (@DavidGressly) August 28, 2023

In May, the UN initiated the long-awaited operation to salvage the 47-year-old Safer tanker by dispatching a team of engineers to the Red Sea who began draining oil from the tanker to a new vessel.

The FSO tanker, stranded off the western Yemeni city of Hodeidah, attracted international attention after oil began seeping into the vessel after rust ate away at its walls, threatening a significant oil spill in the Red Sea. The tanker has not been maintained since the Houthis took control of the western province of Hodeidah in early 2015.

Speaking to reporters in New York on Monday, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric stated that the first part of the rescue effort had been completed successfully and that the UN had avoided a major catastrophe in the Red Sea.

“The UN and the broad group of partners that support the Safer project have so far succeeded in preventing the worst-case scenario of a massive oil spill in the Red Sea with obvious potential catastrophic environmental, humanitarian and economic repercussions,” Dujarric said, adding that the UN still requires an additional $22 million to carry out the second portion of the operation, which involves mooring the new tanker to a buoy and recycling the rusting tanker.

“We are counting on further generous support to finish this critical mission,” Dujarric said.

The Yemeni government confirmed that the risk of oil spills from the Safer has been eliminated after UN crews transferred all of the cargo from the FSO tanker to the new tanker.

“Now, the Safer tanker poses no threat, and the new tanker is as good as any ship on the sea and does not require UN assistance,” Capt. Yeslem Mubarak, vice executive chairman of the Maritime Affairs Authority and acting head of the Safer National Committee, told Arab News on Tuesday.

The new tanker will remain alongside the deteriorating tanker until the Yemeni government and the Houthis agree on who will receive the proceeds from crude sales.

The UN announcement came as UN Yemen Envoy Hans Grundberg arrived on Tuesday in Aden, Yemen’s interim capital, where he is set to meet with Yemeni government leaders.

Grundberg’s trip to Aden coincides with intensifying diplomatic efforts by international and regional mediators to persuade Yemeni factions to extend the UN-brokered ceasefire and engage in negotiations to reach a peace agreement.