The United Nations says the switch of 1.1 million barrels of oil from an ageing tanker moored off the coast of war-torn Yemen has been accomplished, avoiding an environmental catastrophe
ByThe Related Press
August 11, 2023, 11:35 AM
FILE – Technical vessels are seen by the decrepit ‘Safer’ tanker on Monday, June 12, 2023, off the coast of Yemen. A senior United Nations official says a salvage workforce is about to start siphoning oil out of the decaying tanker moored off the coast of Yemen. (AP Picture/Osamah Abdulrahman, File)
The Related Press
NEW YORK — The switch of greater than one million barrels of oil from an ageing tanker moored off the coast of war-torn Yemen has been accomplished, avoiding an environmental catastrophe, the United Nations stated Friday.
In an announcement, Deputy Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-Normal Farhan Haq stated that the operation had prevented “monumental environmental and humanitarian disaster.”
A global workforce started siphoning the oil from the dilapidated vessel referred to as SOF Safer on July 25. All the oil is now aboard a alternative tanker referred to as Nautica.
For years, worldwide organizations and rights teams have warned of a possible spill and even an explosion from the tanker, which has not been maintained for years and has seawater in its engine compartment and broken pipes.
It’s moored 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from Yemen’s western Purple Sea ports of Hodeida and Ras Issa, a strategic space managed by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who’re at conflict with the internationally acknowledged authorities.
Each warring sides blamed the opposite for blocking a salvage operation that will see the oil eliminated, till a UN-led initiative succeeded in accessing the ship and elevating cash from worldwide donors.
The floating tanker is a Japanese-made vessel constructed within the Nineteen Seventies and was offered to the Yemeni authorities in Nineteen Eighties to retailer for export as much as 3 million barrels pumped from oil fields in Marib, a province in japanese Yemen. The ship is 360 meters (1,181 ft) lengthy with 34 storage tanks.
