DUBAI: After a technical support ship arrived on site on Tuesday, operations to rescue 1.1 million barrels of oil from a rotting tanker stranded off Yemen’s coast will soon begin, according to the United Nations.
For years, UN experts have warned that the Safer tanker might spill four times as much oil as the Exxon Valdez disaster off the coast of Alaska in 1989.
The Ndeavor tanker, accompanied by a technical team from Boskalis/SMIT, has arrived at the Safer tanker off the coast of Yemen’s Ras Isa, according to UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen David Gressley, who is on board the Ndeavor.
The war in Yemen forced the Safer’s repair operations to be halted in 2015. The UN has warned that its structural integrity has deteriorated dramatically and that it is on the verge of exploding.
The UN initiated a fundraising campaign, including initiating a crowdfunding campaign, to raise the $129 million required to transfer the oil from the Safer to a replacement tanker, the Nautica, which set sail from China in early April.
The UN has stated that the rescue operation cannot be funded by the sale of the oil because it is unclear who owns it.
“Sea work will begin very soon.” “More funding is required to complete the process,” the UN wrote on its Yemen Twitter account.