In an effort to stop a catastrophic oil leak in the Red Sea off Yemen, workers are getting ready to transfer oil from the 47-year-old supertanker FSO Safer (L) to a replacement vessel that the United Nations has purchased.
The majority of the oil aboard a decaying supertanker off the coast of war-torn Yemen has been transferred to a replacement vessel, according to the United Nations.
Last week, 1.14 million barrels of Marib light petroleum were transferred from the 47-year-old FSO Safer to the new vessel.
In the past week, more than half of the oil aboard the deteriorating FSO Safer has been transferred to the substitute vessel Yemen, according to the UN resident coordinator for Yemen, David Gressly.
Gressly had previously estimated that the transfer would be completed in less than three weeks.
The United Nations (UN) anticipates that the $143 million operation, for which it is still $20 million short, will eliminate the danger of an environmental catastrophe whose cleanup would cost $20 billion, according to its estimates.
Due to the location of the Safer in the Red Sea, a leak would also cost billions of dollars per day in shipping disruptions through the Bab al-Mandab Strait to the Suez Canal, as well as wreaking havoc on ecosystems, coastal fishing communities, and vital ports.
Since the 1980s, the Safer, a floating storage and discharge facility, has been anchored approximately 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the port of Hodeida.
Since conflict broke out eight years ago between rebels, who control the capital Sanaa and the waters where the Safer is positioned, and a Saudi-led coalition supporting the internationally recognized government, it has not been serviced.
The aging vessel, with its corroding hull, is transporting four times as much oil as the Exxon Valdez disaster off the coast of Alaska in 1989.
