Rescue Effort For Stricken Yemeni Tanker In Limbo, Despite Lull In Fighting

Despite a relatively stable security situation in Yemen over recent months, efforts to rescue a large cargo of oil from a stricken tanker lying off the coast of the Middle East country appear to be making limited progress.

The UK government was among those to voice concern this week about the delays to retrieving the crude oil from the FSO Safer, which has been abandoned since 2015. The vessel is in a poor state of repair and at risk of breaking up and spilling its cargo into the sea.

In comments to the United Nations Security Council on January 16, the UK’s ambassador James Kariuki described the situation as “a wholly preventable crisis” and called on the UN and other parties “to continue working together at pace. Urgency needs to be balanced with rigour, but we must identify ways to avoid further delays.”

His comments were echoed by Yemeni ambassador Abdullah Ali Fadhel Al-Saadi who also urged rapid action to address the situation.

The FSO Safer – the acronym in its name stands for floating storage and offloading – currently holds an estimated 1.1 million barrels of oil – four times the amount of oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez in March 1989.

Funding in place

In September last year, the UN said it had finally raised enough funds from donors to start the first phase of a plan to remove the oil from the decrepit ship, with some $75 million pledged by governments, local corporates and members of the public. Yesterday, France said it would donate a further €1 million to the rescue mission.

The first phase is due to take four months to complete, but the full rescue effort is expected to cost around $113 million, with an additional $38 million needed to install a safe, long-term oil storage facility to take the place of the Safer.

However, it appears little progress has been made, in a country that is still riven by conflict.

In a briefing given to the Security Council on January 16, the UN’s special envoy to Yemen Hans Grundberg said he had held “positive and constructive discussions” with the Houthi leadership in Sanaa that day.

In search of a ceasefire

Speaking via video link from the Yemeni capital, Grundberg said his talks with Houthi leaders had followed on from other “fruitful discussions” with president Rashad al-Alimi – the head of the internationally-recognized government, the Presidential Leadership Council – as well as with regional stakeholders in Saudi Arabia and Oman.

A UN-backed ceasefire in Yemen had been observed by the main warring parties for six months from early April last year, but it broke down in October and Grundberg has yet to persuade them to restart it. However, he told the Security Council said that the overall military situation in Yemen had remained stable and there had been no major escalation.

Launching a rescue operation for the FSO Safer – which lies in waters controlled by the Houthis, close to Hodeidah port – has proved impossible in the context of the country’s war.

Observers warn that if nothing is done and the cargo leaks or explodes, the effects would be devastating for the surrounding environment and local livelihoods. The UN has said that hundreds of thousands of jobs in the fishing industry would be lost almost overnight and it could take 25 years for fish stocks to recover.

Environmental pressure group Greenpeace has described the situation as a “ticking timebomb”. The cost of a clean-up operation in the event of a spill has been put at $20 billion.