AL-MUKALLA: According to the UN, the present operation to rescue the deteriorating Safer ship is continuing smoothly, and the long-awaited transfer of more than a million barrels of crude oil from the tanker to a new one will begin “soon.”
“The work to prepare the FSO Safer for the offloading of its oil has progressed well,” said Russell Geekie, communications advisor to UN Humanitarian Coordinator David Gressly.
“We anticipate that the replacement vessel Nautica will sail from Djibouti to the Safer site to pick up the oil very soon.” “The transfer operation will take about two weeks once it begins,” he said.
After years of defiance, the Iran-backed Houthis allowed Western engineers to board the decaying FSO Safer tanker stranded off the western Yemeni port of Hodeidah.
Local and international environmentalists and officials had long warned of a huge environmental disaster in the Red Sea if the ship detonated or fell apart due to a lack of routine maintenance since the Houthis gained control of Hodeidah province in early 2015.
During the last three years, images of seawater gushing into the tanker’s chambers as rust eats away at the walls have captured international attention.
The UN official stated that even if the tanker was unloaded, it would still represent a threat, begging for further donations to finish the mission, which includes recycling the tanker and anchoring the new ship to the anchor leg.
“The Safer will continue to pose a residual environmental threat even after the oil transfer.” “The ageing tanker will still hold some viscous oil and is at risk of breaking up,” Geekie explained.
“An additional $28 million in funding is urgently required to complete the work begun by the UN, including towing the Safer to a green recycling yard and safely tethering the replacement vessel to a catenary anchor leg mooring buoy to ensure safe storage of the oil.”
The United Nations informed Yemen’s internationally recognised government that the first phase of the salvage operation had been completed, during which engineers tested the level of wall erosion and introduced inert gas to the ship to reduce oxygen content in an effort to prevent a fire.
Source: Arab News