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The United Nations has begun an operation to defuse what could be the world's biggest time bomb": the words chosen on Tuesday by the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, are strong. But they are assumed: the work begun on July 25 in the Red Sea is "unique", both in its scope and complexity, hammered Achim Steiner, administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The long-awaited mission aims to remove more than a million barrels of oil from a decomposing ship off the coast of Yemen. This Yemeni-flagged tanker, named FSO Safer, threatens at any moment to sink or explode, which would spill four times more oil than the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989, off Alaska. Yemen, the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula, is riven by an armed conflict between the Houthis, Iranian-backed insurgents, and pro-government forces backed by Saudi Arabia. This war has led to the suspension of maintenance operations on the 47-year-old Safer since 2015. This vessel was used as a floating oil storage platform and the systems to pump gas into its tanks ceased to function in 2017 which increased the risk of explosion.
The task promises to be complex, to say the least: the FSO Safer is in a disastrous state, eaten away by rust and fungi that spread on its hull whose thickness has reduced by four millimeters in some places, according to AFP journalists. On 19 July, a perilous repair was carried out by the reduced crew - less than 10 people compared to 72 before the war - after the detection of an anomaly in the engine room. Braving the heat and fumes released from the crude oil, the sailors managed to repair a burst pipe with makeshift iron strips before divers installed a steel plate to prevent seawater from drowning the ship.
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Polluted air
UN officials have long warned of the issue, saying Yemen's Red Sea and coastline are in grave danger. An oil spill would devastate fishing communities on the Yemeni coast, depriving 200,000 people of their livelihoods. The disaster could also lead to the closure of ports, which are vital for the delivery of food, fuel and other essential supplies in Yemen, where most of the population depends on international humanitarian assistance to survive. The oil slick could also reach Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia and produce highly polluted air over a wide area. Another potential consequence: maritime traffic between the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Suez Canal, en route to the Mediterranean, could be disrupted, costing billions of dollars a day, according to the UN.
Attempts to inspect the boat have stalled for years as UN requests for access have been repeatedly rejected by rebels who control much of northern and western Yemen, including the port of Hodeido. The Houthis are accused of using the ship as bargaining chips and have long demanded that oil revenues be paid to pay the salaries of their civil servants. After long negotiations, the inspections finally began on May 30 with the arrival of a team of experts from the private company SMIT Salvage. On Monday, July 17, the UN handed over to Yemen a ship in which the stored oil, the "Yemen" (formerly Nautica), bought by the organization, is quite rare.
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Mounting such a rescue operation is a physical and security challenge, says Achim Steiner, with Le Figaro. It was also a challenge to raise the funds to find a vessel in a global market that had almost no very large crude carriers available for sale." Fourteen insurance companies took part in this very perilous rescue project. To finance it, the United Nations has carried out crowdfunding and says it still needs an additional $ 22 million. UNDP hopes to mobilize the oil, gas and shipping industry because "this is their operating environment," says the UN.
Even if the crude transfer is successful, the Safer will still pose a "threat to the environment" because it contains "viscous hydrocarbon residues and is likely to break," the organization warns. "Together with the local authorities we are training on an incident contingency plan," Achim Steiner said last week, in case it intervenes during pumping operations. Once the pumping is complete, the question of ownership of this black gold will arise, as the rivalry between the Houthi rebels and government forces continues to rage, even if the fighting has largely diminished on the ground. The transfer of the 150,000 tons of oil on board the tanker to a replacement vessel is expected to cost, in total, $ 143 million, and take 19 days.