Mission of removing oil from decaying Yemen tanker accomplished: UN
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The United Nations announces the success of moving over one million barrels of oil off a decrepit Yemeni ship.
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Technical vessels are seen by the decrepit Safer tanker on Monday, June 12, 2023, off the coast of Yemen. (AP)
The United Nations announced it successfully moved over one million barrels of oil off a decrepit Yemeni ship, eliminating the threat of a disaster.
According to a statement, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed that he welcomed the news, "avoiding what could have been a monumental environmental and humanitarian catastrophe."
The achievement means that "the core aspect" of a years-long campaign to address the threat presented by the Safer, also known as a "ticking time bomb," has been completed, according to UN Development Programme chief Achim Steiner.
Steiner disclosed to AFP that the next part of the job, stripping and cleaning the tanker to prepare it for towing, is estimated to take two to three weeks.
It is noteworthy that the FSO Safer has not undergone any maintenance work since the start of the Saudi coalition's aggression on Yemen in 2015, which led to the erosion of its structure and the deterioration of its condition.
The oil tanker is anchored about 50 kilometers from the strategic port of Al-Hudaydah, which is a major gateway for shipments to the country, which relies heavily on foreign aid.
Last March, the Sanaa government and the United Nations signed a memorandum of understanding regarding the transfer of the tanker's cargo to another vessel, after Sanaa expressed its disappointment with the UN for its disregard of its commitments to FSO Safer and its attempts to back out of the execution of the immediate maintenance agreement.
The Sanaa government had repeatedly warned of the catastrophic repercussions in the event the FSO Safer explodes, which may extend to the Suez Canal.
Deploying chemicals from the air
According to Steiner, the UN had even planned for a plane to be on standby "within a 90-minute flight radius" so that it could "deploy chemicals from the air" in reaction to a leak.
Overall, the UN has projected that the operation would cost $143 million, which is a fraction of the estimated $20 billion in cleanup expenses in the case of a spill.
A leak would have cost billions of dollars every day in shipping disruptions across the Bab Al-Mandab strait to the Suez Canal, as well as destroying ecosystems, coastal fishing villages, and key ports due to the Safer's location in the Red Sea.
The US, a main actor in the war on Yemen, encouraged through its Secretary of State Antony Blinken the international community and the business sector to contribute funds and "finish the job and address all remaining environmental threats" on Friday.
Greenpeace believes oil companies that have previously used the Safer "and are the likely owners of some of the transferred oil" must contribute to the project's further stages, adding that the oil industry has made massive profits and is yet to show accountability.
