Yemen:  There are warnings that the lack of time is putting the floating oil storage and offloading vessel that is moored in the Red Sea north of the Yemeni city of Hodeidah, FSO Safer, on the line of imminent danger. It is now threatening the marine and coastal environment of the countries bordering the Red Sea, especially Yemen.

Moreover it will disrupt the Red Sea navigation and affect the flow of global trade, amid demands from individuals and international organizations to intervene urgently to avoid the danger of Safer bomb, which cannot be delayed, especially when time is very tight and not in everyone’s interest.

The Safer case and the local, regional and international concern it poses in the Red Sea, the most important international shipping lanes for the round-the-clock global trade movement, returned to the fore again amid the continuation of the controversy and the exchange of accusations internally and externally. However, what is compounding the danger at the present time is the worsening situation of the ship, which has finished its life span and is approaching its eighth year without any maintenance.

The pro-Saudi government tried, during its foreign minister's meeting with the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, David Grisley, to place blame and responsibility on the Sana'a government, as the party obstructing the maintenance. The latter expressed its strong dissatisfaction with the continued disregard by the United Nations of its obligations towards the FSO Safer, and the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) disavowed the implementation of the urgent maintenance agreement and the comprehensive evaluation of the Floating Reservoir, signed in November 2020.

The Supervisory Committee for the Execution of the Urgent Maintenance Agreement and the Comprehensive Evaluation of the Safer Floating Reservoir, affiliated to the Sana’a government, warned of the repercussions of the deterioration of the situation of the Reservoir, after nearly seven years without any maintenance. The level of an environmental disaster in the Red Sea is much greater than ever, which will affect Yemen and neighboring countries for many years.

Safer's Supervisory Committee explained that the UNOPS and since it presented its implementation plan in violation of the agreement last May, has completely ignored the agreement and its obligations towards Safer, despite its knowledge that the status of the reservoir can no longer tolerate further delays. The Committee called for the immediate implementation of the agreement and held the United Nations and its UNOPS office fully responsible for any leak or explosion of the Reservoir, and the resulting unprecedented environmental disaster in the Red Sea. It also held the UN responsible for squandering the funds allocated to implement the agreement, which UNOPS refuses to reveal its fate, despite the multiple demands directed at it to work on the principle of transparency before public opinion.

The 376-meter-long SAFER floating ship, which has moored 4.8 nautical miles from Ras Issa port in Hodeidah 30 years ago, is a strategic destination for Yemeni crude oil, flowing through a pumping pipe coming from Sector 18 in the Safer area in Marib, and Sector 9 in Malik area in Shabwa. It was converted from a tanker bearing the name “Isso Japan” that was manufactured in 1976, to a floating tank sold to Yemen in 1986. The tank can hold more than four million barrels of crude oil that is sold to foreign ships.

The Sana’a government says that the ship’s operating crew reaches 700 employees, including technicians, engineers and others in various specialties. It accused the coalition and the pro-Saudi government of targeting the reservoir since the government instructed its subsidiary Safer Company in Marib, to reduce workers to only 6. On November 8, 2016, the Saudi-led aggression issued a decision to prevent the arrival of the 3,000-ton diesel ship, Rama 1, which is related to supplying the floating ship Safer, according to an official letter from the Public Authority for Maritime Affairs, Hodeidah Branch.

Any oil leakage from the Safer ship or explosion may cause, according to the researchers, to hit the marine environment on which nearly 30 million people depend, including at least 1.6 million Yemenis. The damages may expand to the fisheries on the western Yemeni coast within days, destroying the livelihoods of the coastal communities in Hodeidah, Hajjah and Taiz, who depend on marine fishing and humanitarian aid. More than 8.4 million people may be exposed to elevated levels of pollutants.

Translated report/ Yemen Eco