An unmaintained floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel, caught in the Yemeni civil war’s proxy conflict between Iranian and Saudi interests, is set to be replaced by a United Nations (UN)-owned very large crude carrier (VLCC) as the organisation seeks to avert environmental and public health impacts from a potential spill of 1M barrels of crude oil
The UN has signed a deal with tanker owner Euronav for the US$55M purchase of a VLCC to replace the FSO vessel Safer.
An announcement from the UN said its VLCC replacement storage vessel is now in drydock for maintenance and modifications before it sails to reach FSO Safer’s mooring point, about 9 km off the Yemeni coast.
A UN-co-ordinated operation to remove more than a million barrels of oil from the "decaying tanker off Yemen’s Red Sea coast" will then ensue in an attempt to avert what the UN called "a humanitarian and environmental catastrophe".
"A major spill would devastate fishing communities on Yemen’s Red Sea coast, likely wiping out 200,000 livelihoods instantly. Whole communities would be exposed to life-threatening toxins. Highly polluted air would affect millions. It would also result in the closure of the ports of Hodeidah and Saleef – which are essential to bring food, fuel and life-saving supplies into Yemen, where 17M people need food assistance. Desalination plants would close, cutting off a water source for millions of people. Oil from Safer could reach the African coast and affect any country on the Red Sea. The environmental impact on coral reefs life-supporting mangroves and other marine life would be severe. Fish stocks would take 25 years to recover," the UN said.
The UN estimated the cost of cleanup from a potential oil spill from Safer at US$20Bn, saying the spill could also disrupt shipping through the Bab al-Mandab Strait that leads to the Suez Canal, causing "billions more in global trade losses every day, as happened after the Ever Given grounded in the canal in 2021".
Project co-ordinators UNDP have contracted marine salvage company SMIT to remove the oil and prepare Safer for towing to a green salvage yard as part of what the UN has deemed a high-risk operation.
The UN has also called for more funding, relying on donations, and said it has in hand US$75M, with another US$20M committed, but the budget for the project’s "emergency phase" is estimated at US$129M.
"We must accept this is a very challenging and complex operation. UNDP is working around the clock with experts from UN sister agencies including IMO, WFP and UNEP among others as well as international consultancies on maritime law, insurance and environmental impact to ensure we are deploying the best possible expertise to successfully complete this operation," UNDP administrator Achim Steiner said.
"While the project to remove the oil has received significant international support, spiralling costs mostly related to the war in Ukraine that triggered a significant price increase in the market for suitable vessels to undertake the operation mean more money is still needed to complete the emergency phase of the plan."
The UN reached an agreement in principle to transfer the oil from the deteriorating vessel in February 2022.
Owned by Yemen Oil and Gas Corp, the Japanese-built FSO has been stranded in the Red Sea since the early days of the ongoing civil war in Yemen when it fell into the hands of Houthi forces.
Safer contains 1.14M barrels of oil worth roughly US$85M in today’s prices, making it an asset to the Houthi movement. But there are rival claims to the oil from the Yemeni Government.
Sign up for Riviera’s series of technical and operational webinars and conferences in 2023:
© 2023 Riviera Maritime Media Ltd.