The FSO Safer has been at anchor since the 1980s but her maintenance was suspended in 2015 due to the raging war in the country.
A UN ship arrived in Yemeni waters on Sunday to facilitate the complex transfer of oil currently stored in a derelict supertanker after years of war in Yemen to prevent a gigantic oil spill in the Red Sea.
After intense diplomatic negotiations and raising tens of millions of dollars, the ship Nautica, bought by the United Nations in March, left the coast of Djibouti on the other side of the Red Sea on Saturday and is due to dock next Sunday for the FSO Safer, a 47-year-old Oil tanker with more than a million barrels.
oil transfer
But the threat of disaster off Hodeida, a western port city, remains due to extreme temperatures and the presence of sea mines in that region, which has been the subject of bloody fighting.
“The risk is very high,” stressed Mohammed Mudawi, representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on the issue.
“But we hope that this risk will be eliminated after this operation is completed,” he added. The work should take about three weeks.
Experts have concluded that “the oil transfer can take place with an acceptable level of risk,” UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen David Gressley said during a Security Council meeting this week. “We’re pretty confident,” he later confirmed. “We believe the transfer will happen.”
Maintenance suspended since 2015
Dolphins are jumping out of the water around the safer and cormorants have settled at the rudder of the wrecked ship, protecting fauna and flora in this area that could be destroyed by an oil spill.
Safer has been anchored about fifty kilometers from the strategic port of Hodeida and nine kilometers from the nearest coast since the 1980s. Its maintenance was cut short in 2015 by the war between the Iran-backed Houthi movement and government forces backed by a Saudi-led military coalition.
The deck of the Yemen-flagged oil tanker FSO Safer in the Red Sea off the disputed western province of Hodeida, July 15, 2023. – MOHAMMED HUWAIS / AFP
The ship, which was about to explode, is carrying four times as much oil as the ship that spilled off Alaska in the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, one of the world’s worst ecological disasters.
Extreme temperatures
In the event of an oil spill that could affect Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia, the cost of clean-up alone would be $20 billion, according to UN estimates. If the ship’s condition permits, the planned operation will begin when summer temperatures in the Arabian Peninsula peak at around 50°C.
“It gets very hot very quickly,” said Nick Quinn, an expert involved with the operation.
These extreme temperatures increase the risk of “slips, trips and falls” for workers wearing heavy protective equipment.
A UN member shows a man how to use a protective mask while training a local team on how to use a floating boom to protect the coast from an oil spill, by FSO Safer, Yemen, July 13, 2023. – Khaled Ziad / AFP
Question of oil ownership
This is exactly the kind of nightmare scenario the Houthis allegedly encouraged by initially denying requests for UN access to inspect the Safer.
The Houthis not only control the capital, Sanaa, but have also conquered entire areas of the territory, particularly in Hodeida, during the course of the war. For their part, they blame Saudi Arabia, saying the air and sea blockade against Yemen deprived the ship of necessary maintenance.
This blockade, denounced by NGOs, is defended by Riyadh, which wants to restrict the supply of military equipment to the Houthis.
The Nautica, which will be renamed Yemen, will remain in the region with the oil on board. Then comes the question of ownership of that black gold, as the rivalry between the Houthis and the government rages on, although violence on the ground has largely subsided.
Likewise, the “problem” of maintaining the new ship will fall victim to these rivalries, said Idriss Al-Shami, head of the Yemeni oil and gas company appointed by the Houthis in Sana’a. “So we’re moving the problem from an old, aging ship to a newer ship.”