DUBAI (Reuters) – The United Nations announced on Friday that it has successfully removed over 1 million barrels of oil from a deteriorating supertanker off the coast of Yemen in the Red Sea, thereby averting a potential environmental catastrophe.
For years, U.N. officials and activists have been raising concerns about the risk posed to the entire Red Sea coastline by the rusting Safer tanker. The vessel had the potential to rupture or explode, leading to a spill of four times the amount of oil as the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska.
The ongoing war in Yemen resulted in the suspension of maintenance operations on the Safer in 2015. The ship, which has been used for storage, has remained moored off the coast of Yemen for more than three decades.
Achim Steiner, administrator of the U.N. Development Programme, expressed relief at the successful outcome, saying, “It is a major moment of having averted a potentially catastrophic disaster.” The U.N. coordinated a complex operation to remove the oil from the ship.
Over a span of 18 days, salvage crews worked in a coastal conflict zone filled with sea mines, battling high summer temperatures and strong currents, to transfer the oil from the tanker.
Steiner revealed that the U.N. raised over $120 million for the operation, which involved acquiring a second tanker to offload the crude oil, having aircraft on standby to release chemicals in the event of a spill, and collaborating with multiple insurers to underwrite the operation. He emphasized the need for a high level of preparedness and risk mitigation throughout the operation.
However, the story is not over yet. There is currently no agreement on how the oil will be sold and brought out of the region. U.N. officials in Yemen are set to commence negotiations with the conflicting groups in the country to determine how the proceeds from the sale of the oil, which is mostly owned by Yemeni state firm SEPOC, will be shared.
Reporting by Andrew Mills, Imad Creidi, and Michelle Nichols; Writing by Andrew Mills; Editing by Ismail Shakil and Sharon Singleton
Credit: The Star : News Feed
