International oil companies must step up to the plate to help Yemen transfer a million barrels of oil from an abandoned offshore tanker that is in danger of spilling into the Red Sea, the country’s largest private company said Thursday.
The ship, the FSO Safer, anchored off the strategic port of Hodeida in western Yemen, and could break up, explode or catch fire at any time, experts said. “The international business community has a vested interest in ensuring that this devastating crisis, particularly in the oil sector, is addressed,” said Nabil Hayel Saeed Anam, director of Hayel Saeed Anam (HSA), in a statement.
. The UAE-based business conglomerate, which has a strong presence in the Yemeni market, contributed $1.2 million to the UN in August. In March, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) took the unprecedented step of purchasing a huge tanker to transfer the equivalent of just over one million barrels of FSO Safer. The UN then launched the “Stop Red Sea Spill” crowdfunding campaign to raise funds and finance this complex operation whose budget has exploded.
The first phase of the rescue would cost $129 million, of which only $99.6 million has so far been pledged. The second phase would cost an additional $19 million. “The potential disruptions to trade routes and supply chains would be considerable, inflicting long-term operational and economic challenges for businesses around the world,” HSA fears as a UN virtual conference on the fundraising campaign is held Thursday. “An oil spill would have an impact on all the communities in the Red Sea region that need to make a living from trade or economic activities,” the company added.
The 47-year-old FSO Safer served as a floating storage and offloading terminal. It has not been maintained since 2015 as Yemen is plunged into a severe humanitarian crisis due to the war between the government and Houthi rebels. According to the UN, the tanker contains four times the amount of oil of the Exxon Valdez, the tanker that caused one of the biggest environmental disasters in the history of the United States in 1989. “We are in a race against time,” said UNDP head Achim Steiner in early April.
