Pumping operations to transfer a million barrels of oil from a dilapidated tanker off the coast of war-torn Yemen, with the aim of avoiding an oil spill, began on Tuesday, the UN announced.
Crucial tanker pumping operation to avert environmental disaster
“The United Nations has begun an operation to defuse what could be the world’s biggest time bomb,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a statement.
“A complex operation is currently underway in the Red Sea, off the coast of war-torn Yemen, to transfer one million barrels of oil from the FSO Safer to a replacement vessel,” he added.
“The operation began at 10:45 (07:45 GMT),” the statement said.
The transfer of 1.14 million barrels of crude from the FSO Safer to the new vessel is expected to take around three weeks. The UN hopes that this operation, estimated to cost $143 million, will prevent an environmental catastrophe costing $20 billion to clean up, according to the same source.
An oil spill would wreak havoc on Yemen’s wildlife, fishing villages and vital ports. It could also disrupt international maritime traffic between the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the Suez Canal, which leads to the Mediterranean. The 47-year-old FSO Safer has been moored off the strategic port of Hodeida since the 1980s. Its maintenance was interrupted in 2015 with the war that plunged the country into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
