News - Yemen: Yemen’s Minister of Transport has accused the United Nations of evading the implementation of its commitment to transfer oil from the FSO Safer tanker, an old tanker off the coast of Yemen, according to the agreement concluded in March 2022 with the Committee for the Implementation of the Urgent Maintenance Agreement and the Comprehensive Assessment of the tank.

“The UN is deliberately keeping the status of the FSO Safer tanker as it is, to request more funding from donor and non-donor countries, despite obtaining the full amount that it set at $85 million,” Abdulwahhab Al-Durra said on Sunday. He explained that donor countries and other countries have contributed to avoiding the major environmental catastrophe that will befall all countries surrounding the Red Sea up to the Suez Canal and beyond.

"The funding of the UN is ready, and it promised to implement it at the beginning of 2023. We are in February, and we have not noticed any movement for replacement until this moment," he added.

The Minister of Transport indicated that the UN Coordinator in Yemen, William David Gressly, announced in November 2022 that the operation to transfer oil from the FSO Safer tanker would begin in early 2023.

He wondered about the recent statement of the UN Deputy Spokesperson, Farhan Haq, in which he declared that the UN needed an additional $20 million to start the process of transporting crude oil from the tanker.

Minister Al-Durra once again held the UN responsible for what might happen in the event of a tank explosion or oil leakage, which has catastrophic repercussions on the environment, marine wealth and other problems that have dire consequences.

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 US-Saudi aggression and the Saudi-backed government of targeting the reservoir since it instructed its subsidiary Safer Company in Marib, to reduce workers to only six. 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.

Sana'a has repeatedly warned of the repercussions of the deteriorating condition of the Safer tanker after nearly seven years of its stay without any maintenance, which makes the level of an environmental disaster in the Red Sea very larger than ever before, which will affect Yemen and neighboring countries for many years.

The UN continues to ignore its obligations towards the Safer tanker, and the UNOPS evades the implementation of the urgent maintenance agreement and the comprehensive evaluation of the floating tank since its signing in November 2020.