‘Risk is high’: UN ship arrives in Yemen to prevent catastrophic oil spill from decaying tanker

Name: ‘Their livelihood is now gone’: Filipino fishermen struggle as oil spill keeps them ashore
Uploaded: 2023-07-16T17:42:42.000Z
Duration: 3 min 36 s
Description: ‘Their livelihood is now gone’: Filipino fishermen struggle as oil spill keeps them ashore

The Nautica entered Yemeni waters at midday and was expected to moor soon alongside the FSO Safer, a rusting supertanker in the Red Sea

The operation to transfer 1.14 million barrels of Marib light crude to the Nautica, bought by the UN for the operation, is expected to begin at the end of the week

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FSO Safer oil tanker moored in the Red Sea, off the coast of Hodeidah province, Yemen on Saturday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Agence France-Presse

Published: 1:42am, 17 Jul 2023

A UN-owned ship arrived off war-torn Yemen on Sunday for a risky operation to pump more than a million barrels of oil from a decaying tanker and prevent a catastrophic spill.

After years of tense diplomacy between the United Nations, Yemen’s Houthi rebels and the internationally recognised government, the Nautica entered Yemeni waters at midday, and was expected to moor soon alongside the FSO Safer, a rusting supertanker in the Red Sea.

The delicate operation to transfer 1.14 million barrels of Marib light crude to the Nautica, bought by the United Nations for the operation, is expected to begin towards the end of the coming week.

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‘Their livelihood is now gone’: Filipino fishermen struggle as oil spill keeps them ashore

Despite stringent safety checks, concerns remain about a spill or an explosion. The Safer is carrying four times as much oil as was spilled in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska.

“The risk is high. The risk is very high,” said Mohammed Mudawi, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) project manager for the ship Safer.

“But we are hoping with the completion of the project that this will be eliminated.”

Maintenance operations on the Safer were suspended in 2015 because of Yemen’s war, and the UNDP has for years warned it could “explode at any time”.