Yemen: UN concludes removal of one million barrels of oil from decaying tanker

A UN-led operation to remove over one million barrels of crude oil from a rusting supertanker, the FSO Safer, off Yemen safely concluded on Friday, preventing the immediate threat of a massive spill in the Red Sea.

Constructed in 1976 as a supertanker and converted a decade later to be a floating storage and offloading facility (FSO) for oil, the Safer is moored about 4.8 nautical miles off the coast of Hudaydah Governorate in Yemen.

The tanker was abandoned off the Red Sea port of Hudaydah after civil war broke out in 2015. Prior to the conflict, it was used to store and export oil from fields around Ma’rib, but the fighting brought production, as well as maintenance of the vessel, to a halt.

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