Transfer of crude from Yemen's FSO Safer to start soon as replacement ship en route

UN's rescue mission to keep one million barrels of oil from spilling into the Red Sea is under way

The Nautica is a very large crude carrier hired by the UNDP to transfer oil from the FSO Safer, off the coast of Yemen. Photo: UNDP

The UN went a step closer to averting environmental disaster from a 47-year-old oil tanker stranded off the coast of Yemen as a ship assigned to remove its load left Djibouti on Saturday.

The FSO Safer, which is carrying more than one million barrels of crude in its rusting and abandoned hull, will transfer its load to the Nautica, the UN said.

Amid the nine-year war between the Yemeni government and Houthi rebels, the Safer has not been maintained off the coast of Ras Issa since 2015. A skeleton crew has kept the vessel afloat.

Achim Steiner, the administrator of the UN Development Programme, said the world body expected the removal of oil from the Safer to begin next week.

"Removing the threat the Safer poses will be a huge achievement for the many people who have worked tirelessly on this complex and difficult project over months and years to bring us to this point," he said.

"We will not rest until that threat is gone, and today we are close to beginning the operation.”

Once the Nautica, a 15-year-old very large crude carrier, arrives at its destination near the FSO Safer, a two-week ship-to-ship oil transfer will take place.

The next step is to install a buoy secured to the seabed to moor the new craft to, UN Resident and Humanitarian Co-ordinator for Yemen, David Gressly, said on board the Nautica.

He thanked the parties who contributed funds to the operation.

What will happen to the oil once extracted has yet to be agreed.

The UN initially budgeted $143 million, but funding drives have not been able to raise the full amount. About $34 million is still needed to complete the operation.

In the event of a spill, the UN had estimated clean-up costs would top $20 billion, with potentially catastrophic environmental, humanitarian and economic consequences.