FSO Safer: 'critical work remains' after oil transfer from decaying FSO completed

17 July 2023 

Following a UN Development Programme (UNDP) announcement that VLCC tanker Nautica, that the UN purchased for its oil offloading operations on FSO Safer, had departed from Djibouti, in Africa, Yemeni foreign minister Ahmed Bin Mubarak tweeted the vessel had arrived in Hodeidah, Yemen’s second-largest port.

"The replacement ship Nautica... arrived today in Hodeidah, in preparation for unloading more than a million barrels of crude oil from the dilapidated Safer reservoir," the foreign minister said.

Hodeidah, a port with multiple oil and gas facilities, had been the site of attacks against tankers during a prolonged war in Yemen. A six-month, UN-brokered ceasefire from April through October 2022 has held and ushered in a period of relative calm. 

According to UNDP, "All technical preparations and agreements have been finalised" in the complex project to remove oil from the FSO that UNDP said "has been at risk of breaking up or exploding for years".

The oil aboard FSO Safer will be pumped out in a ship-to-ship transfer that is expected to take about two weeks to complete. Maritime salvage company Boskalis’ subsidiary Smit arrived on site in late May 2023 and has since stabilised Safer, according to UNDP

UNDP said  on 15 July that it expects the oil transfer operation to begin "in the next week". 

Speaking from on board Nautica, UN’s Yemen humanitarian coordinator David Gressly said, “The ship-to-ship transfer of the oil is an important milestone, but not the end of the operation. The next critical step is the installation of a CALM buoy to which the replacement vessel will be safely moored. I thank donors, private companies and the general public for providing the funds that have brought us so far.” Mr Gressly has led UN system-wide efforts on Safer since September 2021.

30 June 2023                                                    

Boskalis salvage vessel Ndeavor arrived on site to help transfer the oil from decaying supertanker Safer in early June.

In an update posted to its website on 27 June, Boskalis said its colleagues from subsidiary SMIT Salvage had nearly completed inspections and oil transfer preparations on board Safer.

"Over the past two weeks, further good progress has been made by the colleagues of SMIT Salvage to prepare FSO Safer for the oil transfer phase of the operation. Recent work has focused on inspecting and reinstating equipment on board FSO Safer. This includes various winches required for the mooring operation as well as the stripping pumps to facilitate the transfer of last remains of the cargo to the replacement oil tanker alongside Safer. Furthermore, the underwater inspection of the hull by a team of professional divers has been executed," the update said.

Two tugboats owned by Smit Lamnalco have also arrived on site, according to Boskalis. The tugboats will assist with berthing the replacement tanker Nautica, formerly a Euronav VLCC when the vessel arrives on site. For contingency purposes, oil booms will be installed as a precautionary measure during the ship-to-ship transfer of the oil, the company said.

2 June 2023

To remind readers, FSO Safer is a rusting supertanker moored off Yemen’s Red Sea coast. With more than a million stranded barrels of oil aboard, the ship poses a major environmental threat. But Yemen has been engulfed in civil war for nearly a decade and that has made a salvage operation challenging for years now.

This year, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) has led a salvage attempt, purchasing Nautica from Euronav and contracting Boskalis’ subsidiary SMIT Salvage for Ndeavor, which will transfer the oil from Safer to Nautica. 

Ndeavor arrived onsite 30 May according to UNDP and the crew of experts will inspect Safer before undertaking the necessary work to secure the vessel and transfer the cargo. Nautica, which will receive the oil, is standing by in Djibouti to travel to the site next month.

The start of the operation on the water comes after almost two years of political groundwork, fundraising and project development, led by UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, David Gressly, who was aboard Ndeavor today.

In December 2021, United Nations senior management endorsed the plan to prevent a spill by transferring the oil to a safe vessel and install long-term replacement capacity for Safer. 

“Member states, private companies and the general public have contributed US$114M to stop the Red Sea Spill, and so have many other partners that have contributed expertise and advocated for this critical operation. I thank them all and want to recognise SMIT Salvage and the Fahem Group for presenting an initiative in 2021 that became the basis of the project being implemented today,” Mr Gressly said.

UNDP administrator Achim Steiner remarked, “With the marine salvage support vessel Ndeavor on site, the project can now begin in earnest. This marks the culmination of tremendous amounts of work and co-ordination among UN agencies, maritime lawyers, oil spill experts and many more.”

Mr Steiner added, “Aside from a possible humanitarian and environmental catastrophe, funds spent now will prevent a disaster that could cost billions in the future. With this in mind, we call again upon the international community and private sector to step up and support us to close the funding gap on the project so we can finish what we have started.”

Even after the oil transfer averts the worst-case scenario of a major oil spill, Safer will still hold a considerable amount of residual oil and poses a significant environmental threat to the Red Sea.

The project remains underfunded, with US$29M still needed to safely moor the replacement vessel to a catenary anchor leg mooring buoy and tow Safer to a recycling yard.

Mr Gressly stressed, “To do that, we are counting on generous donors to close the remaining US$29M budget gap.”

To fill the budget gap, the UN is appealing to Member States and private entities, as well as the global public. Donors can make contributions here.

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