Attacks by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden have halted the rescue operation of an ailing oil tanker off the coast of Yemen that continues to pose a threat to the environment, officials said.
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The 48-year-old FSO Safer, moored off the coast of Hodeida in western Yemen, had been stranded for years with 1.14 million barrels of oil on board due to the war between the Houthi rebels since 2014 and the Yemeni power.
Faced with the threat of an oil spill, the United Nations launched a large-scale operation in August 2023, starting with the transfer of crude oil to a replacement ship and ending with the towing and demolition of the FSO Safer. Even if the ship is freed from its cargo, it is at risk of breaking up and poses a “danger to the environment” due to oil residue, according to the UN.
But after suffering several delays, largely due to a lack of funding, the operation was suspended due to an increase in Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, as well as American retaliatory strikes against rebel positions in Yemen.
The situation posed “unexpected operational and financial challenges” and prevented the operation from being completed, a spokesman for the UN Development Program (UNDP) told AFP.
“The UN had no choice but to stop the project at this point and inform the authorities,” he added. “We continue to monitor developments very closely.”
An oil spill in the Red Sea would impact the marine ecosystem, fishing villages and key ports in Yemen, the Arabian Peninsula's poorest country.
“All cards”
Yemen's Houthi rebels control large parts of the country, including the capital Sanaa and part of the west coast where Hodeida is located.
Since mid-November, they have fired rockets and drones off the coast of Yemen at ships they say are linked to Israel, as a sign of “solidarity” with Palestinians in Gaza, which has been under fire from the Israeli army since a Palestinian attack Hamas. on Israeli soil on October 7th.
Those attacks, which disrupted traffic in this maritime area crucial to global trade, prompted the United States to bomb rebel positions in Yemen and label the Houthis a “terrorist” entity.
The latest American attacks, carried out jointly with the British army, took place on Monday evening.
According to Kuwaiti analyst Bader Al Saif, the Houthis will not hesitate to use “all the cards at their disposal to tarnish the image” of the United States and its allies.
Delaying the FSO Safer project serves their “anti-American propaganda,” he said.
“Big risks”
In this regard, there is a “great danger” that the FSO Safer or the replacement ship called MT-Yemen will be hit by a missile, said Idriss al-Shami, the general director of the national oil and gas company SEPOC in Sanaa, which operates under the authority of the Houthis acts.
The Aden-based Yemeni government, which has its own representative at the head of SEPOC, denies the right of the Houthis to benefit from a possible sale of the oil transferred from the FSO Safer to the MT-Yemen, even if these two ships are at anchor lie off the coast of Hodeida.
The MT-Yemen was purchased by the United Nations on behalf of the “people of Yemen” and entrusted to a company contracted by it for a period of at least six months, pending a possible agreement between the rebels and the government on the sale of oil.
According to Mr Shami, this company wants to withdraw due to tensions in the region.
However, the UN said that only the crew had to leave in accordance with the contract and that the MT-Yemen would remain under the company's management.
In the event of a departure, “SEPOC will take over the management” of FSO Safer, Mr Shami warned. If “the UN does not support the operation, MT-Yemen will become safer as the new FSO.”