With the first phase complete in a mission to avoid a catastrophic environmental tanker disaster in the Red Sea, the United Nations is crowdfunding once again to get a decrepit vessel sent for safe recycling.
Carrying over 1.1m barrels of oil, the FSO Safer was abandoned off Yemen’s Red Sea port of Hudaydah after the civil war broke out in the country in 2015. Since then, the vessel has deteriorated significantly in absence of any servicing or maintenance, prompting fears of a major environmental disaster that would be four times the scales of the Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska in 1989.
was abandoned off Yemen’s Red Sea port of Hudaydah after the civil war broke out in the country in 2015. Since then, the vessel has deteriorated significantly in absence of any servicing or maintenance, prompting fears of a major environmental disaster that would be four times the scales of the Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska in 1989.The UN along with SMIT Salvage successfully completed the transfer of oil from the 1976-built FSO Safer earlier this month, having bought a Euronav tanker earlier in the year to complete the job.
“Critical work remains,” UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters at a regular UN press briefing in New York, noting that a specialised buoy is yet to be delivered and installed, as well as the towing and recycling of the old tanker.
To complete the project, $22m is still required. Generous member States, the private sector and the global public have already provided $121m in funding.
“We are counting on further generous support to finish this critical mission,” Dujarric urged.
