The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) announced that it has signed a deal with Euronav to secure the purchase of a Very Large Crude Carrier – or ‘VLCC’ –, which will go to Yemen to remove more than a million barrels of oil from a decaying tanker off Yemen’s Red Sea coast that threatens a humanitarian and environmental catastrophe.
The replacement vessel is now in drydock for modifications and regular maintenance before sailing to the FSO Safer, moored about nine kilometers off Yemen’s Ras Isa peninsula. It is expected to arrive in early May for the operation, the UNDP said.
The FSO Safer, 47-year-old ship has not been used since the outbreak of Yemen’s devastating civil war in 2015 and was stranded outside the rebel port of Oneida, a critical gateway for supplies to the heavily aid-dependent country.
UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner called the deal a “major breakthrough.” It will avoid the risk of a large-scale environmental and humanitarian disaster,” he told reporters at UN headquarters.
Steiner said the ship would depart within the next month after routine maintenance. “We hope if all things go according to plan, that the operation of the ship-to-ship transfer would actually commence in early May,” he said.
UN officials have raised fears the ship could collapse and trigger an oil spill that would severely affect overseas shipments and cost around $20 billion to clean up. The Safer contains 1. 1 million barrels of oil, four times more than in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, one of the world’s worst environmental disasters, according to the UN.
An environmental disaster could also clog the Bad Amanda strait between Africa and the Arabian Peninsula and devastate the world economy by blocking the Suez Canal. The salvage operation is valued at US$129 million, of which US$75 million has been received and a further US$20 million has been pledged, according to the United Nations.
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