After years of preparation and a race against the clock, the United Nations will next week start removing 1.14m barrels of oil from a decaying floating storage and offloading unit stuck off the coast of Yemen.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York on Monday that a replacement tanker received approval from local authorities to set sail from Djibouti and approach the 406,600-dwt FSO Safer (built 1976).
The UN purchased the 307,300-dwt replacement tanker Nautica (built 2008) earlier this year to do the job. It left the Chinese port of Zhoushan towards Djibouti on 6 April.
“[The Nautica] will moor alongside the Safer and should begin taking on oil by early next week,” Dujarric said in New York. “Once the transfer starts that will take about two weeks.”
Meanwhile, salvors did everything possible to stabilise the decaying Safer and prepare for the removal of its oil cargo.
Late last month Boskalis, the Dutch company hired to provide a salvage team, said that divers working on the UN-backed operation completed the hull inspection of the FSO amid final preparations for the ship-to-ship transfer.
The Safer, one of the largest vessels ever built, has not been maintained since the start of Yemen’s civil war in 2015.
The UN launched a $129m appeal for funds, warning that a spill from the floating storage and offloading unit would cost $20bn for a clean-up operation alone.
Officials said billions of dollars more would be lost to global trade, owing to the blockage of the Bab al-Mandab strait leading to the Suez Canal.
Responding to a reporter’s question, Dujarric dismissed any discussion of what will happen with the ship’s oil after its removal.
“The oil will stay there,” Dujarric said. “These are still issues that need to be worked out. Our focus right now and has been… to avoid an ecological disaster.”
