A plan to prevent a massive oil spill in Yemen finally goes through

A United Nations operation to avert a catastrophic Red Sea oil spill by salvaging a decaying supertanker off the coast of Yemen is moving forward this week after years of delays.

The oil tanker, the FSO Safer, holds more than 1 million barrels of oil, about four times the amount spilled in the disastrous Exxon Valdez spill in 1989.

A crew planning to inspect the rusting tanker sets sail on Monday from Djibouti in East Africa to the port of Hudaydah on the west coast of Yemen, arriving on Tuesday. Moored north of the port city, the tanker was once the scene of fierce fighting in the country’s eight-year war that sparked one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

If all goes according to plan, the team’s inspection will pave the way for an operation to transfer the oil to a seagoing tanker purchased by the United Nations earlier this year.

The FSO Safer originally functioned as a floating storage facility fed by a pipeline that carried oil from eastern Yemen. But the war has isolated it and it has been poorly maintained for years, prompting the UN and Yemeni experts to repeatedly warn that it is an ecological time bomb that could explode or disintegrate at any moment.

If the oil leaked from the tanker, it would devastate marine life, as well as the fishermen and coastal communities that depend on it. It could close ports critical to bringing in much-needed humanitarian aid to a starving country.

It could also force the closure of desalination plants that supply water to millions of people.

“The consequences if we do nothing would be terrible and devastating,” said Mohammed al-Hakimi, head of Holm Akhdar, an environmental consultancy in the Yemeni capital of Sana. Leaks or an explosion could create “a major environmental disaster within a humanitarian crisis,” he added.

“Almost everyone in the Red Sea coastal communities makes a living from fishing,” said Khaled Zarnogi, a fisherman and head of the Khokha Youth fishing group in the town of Khokha, south of Hudaydah. He estimated that there were 10,000 fishermen in his town alone, in addition to others who make their living from fishing.

“If the tanker burst, all those people would be out of work,” he said.

A spill could also affect other countries along the Red Sea, including Saudi Arabia and the East African countries of Eritrea and Djibouti. Damage to coral reefs would hamper Saudi Arabia’s ambitions to develop luxury tourism along the Red Sea coast. And because the tanker is located near major shipping lanes, even global trade could be affected.

“An explosion or leakage from the tanker would not only result in an environmental disaster, but also cause significant damage to economic activities,” said Ahmed Nagi, Yemen senior analyst at the International Crisis Group.

Yet international efforts to inspect the tanker and safely dispose of the oil have failed for years.

The multi-layered war was an important factor, turning Hudaydah into a battle zone for a long time. The tanker was also held hostage by a dispute over who had the right to the oil it contained and what potential revenue it could generate, Mr Nagi said.

The war in Yemen began in 2014, when fighters from the country’s powerful Houthi militia swept through the north into the capital and ousted the internationally recognized government. A military coalition led by neighboring Saudi Arabia intervened in 2015 in an attempt to restore that government and launched a devastating bombing campaign.

The Houthis, allied to Iran, who have since formed a parallel government, control the area where the tanker is docked and saw the oil as a potential asset.

The internationally recognized Yemeni government and their Saudi allies blamed the Houthis for the delay in recovering the tanker. A plan to begin the operation in 2021 was postponed indefinitely at the last minute after the Houthis refused to guarantee the safety of the salvage team in writing, the UN said at the time.

“We are dealing with a militia that has rebelled against the state and its legitimacy,” said Salem Abdullah al-Soqotri, Yemen’s agriculture, irrigation and fisheries minister.

The Houthis did not respond to a request for comment. But in the past, the rebel group has blamed its opponents for the tanker’s dangerous condition. At a press conference in Hudaydah on May 17, the head of the Houthi commission responsible for the tanker, Zaid Ahmed, said the Houthis were surprised that the UN had bought a new ship without consulting them and demanded that the UN make a ” operational plan” for solving the problem.

The UN, meanwhile, had pointed to a lack of sufficient funding for the operation, which is expected to cost more than $100 million in the first phase alone, and even launched a crowdfunding campaign. The UN said it needed an additional $29 million to complete both phases of the salvage operation, out of a total budget of $143 million.

Preparations for the oil transfer could take one to two weeks and the transfer itself could take about three weeks, but the timing could change depending on what the crew discovers on the ship, said Achim Steiner, administrator of the United Nations Development Program.

Negotiations between Saudi Arabia and the rival Houthis to reach a partial solution to the war, which have gained momentum this year, appear to have fostered “some understanding” about the tanker, Mr Nagi said.

“We are hopeful of a speedy rescue from this disaster,” the foreign ministry of Yemen’s internationally recognized government said on Twitter on Monday.

Saeed Al Batati contributed reporting from al-Mukalla, Yemen, and Shuaib Almosawa from Sana, Yemen.