Insurance 'milestone' reached in FSO Safer salvage operation

Crew from Dutch salvage company Smit were able to board the ship for the first time

A photo of the FSO Safer taken from the salvage vessel Ndeavor near the coast of Yemen. AFP / Coen de Jong / Boskalis

The UN says it is ready to start salvage work on the oil tanker stranded off Yemen's coast. AFP / Coen de Jong / Boskalis

The FSO Safer has more than one million barrels of crude on board

It is feared that it poses an acute risk to the marine environment

Concerns have been raised that the stricken oil tanker could break apart and release its cargo into the water

A crew to inspect the rusting tanker has arrived from Djibouti

An operation to relieve the decaying FSO Safer of its crude cargo is now set to begin

It is hoped the move will avert a potentially catastrophic oil spill in the Red Sea. Reuters

The UN Development Programme has announced a binding insurance plan for the decaying FSO Safer, in another step towards averting a potential environmental disaster in the Red Sea.

The vessel, which contains 1.1 million barrels of oil, was left to decay after the war between the Yemeni government and the Houthi rebels broke out in 2014.

For the first time, workers from Dutch company Smit, which is conducting the salvage operation in the UN-led project to ultimately replace the FSO Safer with a permanent ship, were able to inspect the vessel's condition up close in recent weeks.

Another ship called the Nautica is en route to Ras Issa, where the FSO Safer is moored. The Nautica will temporarily host the barrels of oil while a permanent replacement is secured for the FSO Safer.

“We have a few steps to take care of in terms of insurance and other issues we need to resolve before bringing the Nautica into the area,” UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Yemen David Gressly said at the second Yemen International Forum in The Hague on Monday.

“It’s a war risk zone which complicates the insurance process and certain requirements to qualify for the insurance and completing the registration process will be important.”

Commenting on what the UNDP called a “pivotal milestone” in enabling a ship-to-ship transfer operation from the FSO Safer, UNDP administrator Achim Steiner said: “Insurance became a critical element of enabling this salvage operation to proceed. Without it, the mission could not go forward.”

Former captain of the FSO Safer, Salvatore Calleri, who left the ship two days before the war broke out, said the vessel was in a good condition at the time.

“The maintenance of the vessel was halted immediately after I left the vessel,” he told The National.

“The Houthis did not permit anybody to board the FSO. All abandoned. No maintenance on deck and in the engine room.”

He added that he had stayed in touch with some of the ship’s crew.

Peter Berdowski, chief executive of Smit’s parent company Boskalis, said his team had found the ship to be in a better condition than expected and thanked the skeleton crew which had been keeping it afloat.