UN continue efforts to remove Crude Oil from tanker in Red Sea

United Nations (UN) steps up efforts to remove crude oil from a decaying supertanker carrying approximately a million barrels, off the coast of Yemen.

The UN mission is focused on averting what could possibly be the world’s worst ecological disaster in decades, according to CNN. The supertanker which has been moored five miles off the coast of Yemen for more than thirty years, is being ‘delicately’ handled with workers ensuring the crude oil is removed without the tanker falling apart.

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Experts handling the FSO Safer, a 47-year-old vessel, are focused on avoiding a ‘catastrophe’ or massive spill in the Red Sea region. UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, David Gressly, has reportedly said the operation may cost up to $141 million, employing the expertise of the SMIT, known for helping to dislodge the Ever Given ship blocking the Suez Canal for a week, in 2021.

The mission being funded by twenty-three UN member states, is bringing in $16 million from private sector contributors, reported CNN. The donors include HSA Group, which is Yemen’s largest private company to have pledged $1.2 million in August, last year.

The on-site team is pumping approximately 4,000 to 5,000 barrels of oil per hour. So far, they have managed to transfer over 120,000 barrels to the replacement vessel as confirmed by David Gressly. It is estimated the team will complete the transfer in nineteen days. According to expert estimates, the tanker was carrying a million barrels of crude oil which is enough to power over 83,000 cars or 50,000 homes in the US alone, for a year. The oil onboard is quoted to be worth around $80 million.

UN continue efforts to remove Crude Oil from tanker in Red Sea | Baaghi TV

FILE PHOTO: The Nautica, a replacement oil tanker for the decaying FSO Safer, arrives in the Red Sea port of Hodeidah, Yemen July 17, 2023. REUTERS/Adel al-Khadher

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UN intervention against the ‘Time Bomb’

It is worth mentioning that the ship has been abandoned in the Reed Sea area since 2015 with the UN regularly issuing warnings that it is a “ticking time bomb” which could break apart due to its condition and age, or it could implode because of the “highly flammable compounds”. Prior to this, the FSO Safer carried four times the amount of oil in 1989 spilled by the manmade, Exxon Valdez disaster that killed hundreds of thousands of sea birds and other marine life and has yet to be cleared completely.

Given the situation, if the FSO Safer were to spill, it would be considered the fifth largest oil spill from a tanker according to the UN. The subsequent cleanup alone could cost approximately $20 billion.

It is pertinent to note that the Red Sea is a strategic waterway, vital to global trade. On its southern side is the Bab el-Mandeb strait where almost nine percent of the total seaborne-traded petroleum passes. On its north side is the Suez Canal separating Africa from Asia, where a majority of the petroleum and natural gas exports are transported as confirmed by the US Energy Information Administration.

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Risky Operation

Speaking with CNN, Gressly said that a number of things had to be done to secure “the oil from exploding” such as pumping out gases from the thirteen compartments containing the oil. Reportedly the systems to pump the oil have been rebuilt as well as repairing lighting.

Once the oil has been transferred, the Safer must be cleaned to ensure no oil residue is remaining. According to Gressly, “The transfer of the oil to (the replacement vessel) will prevent the worst-case scenario of a catastrophic spill in the Red Sea, but it is not the end of the operation”. Although the risk would be minimized substantially, the team would still need to practice caution against a likely spill.

On the other hand, the UN reiterating the need for $22 million more has cautioned the risk will be there as the tanker “remains vulnerable to collapse”.

Experts have stated that in the likelihood a spill does occur, Yemen would need to close down its ports impacting almost seventeen million people during an already ongoing humanitarian crisis as a result of the country’s civil war. Moreover, according to a UN report, there is a risk of the spill affecting the African coast that could damage marine life for nearly 25 years and 200,000 jobs across the region.

UN continue efforts to remove Crude Oil from tanker in Red Sea | Baaghi TV

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Consequences

Aside from the economic issues it will present, there will also be a magnitude increase in hospitalization from cardiovascular and//or respiratory disease for those exposed to it. According to a study, this could also result in psychiatric and neurological issues.

David Rehkopf, a professor at Stanford University has said: “Given the scarcity of water and food in this region, it could be one of the most disastrous oil spills ever known in terms of impacts on human life”. According to Rehkopf, almost eight million people would face difficulties in access to food supplies with an approximate 10 million with limited access to clean water.

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