There’s been positive developments with the stricken oil storage vessel, the FSO Safer, moored off the coast of Yemen’s Red Sea port of Al Hudaydah. The UN has purchased a ship with the aim of offloading the 1.14 million barrels of oil stored and then disposing of the ship itself. The replacement vessel is expected to arrive and begin the operation in May.
The Floating Storage and Offloading (FSO) vessel has been abandoned off the coast of Yemen since 2015 due to the ongoing civil war. Unmanned with no maintenance performed in nearly a decade the vessel is at serious risk of breaking apart or exploding. The resulting oil spill would be one of the worst in history – the FSO Safer holds over four times the oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez in 1989. The estimated cost of a clean up is $20 billion.
The result of a spill would be a humanitarian and environmental disaster – contaminating the air, water and risking fragile food supplies in the region. Due to the geography of the Red Sea, it’s enclosed on three sides with limited circulation, any spill is likely to have particularly long lasting implications. An outline of the impact can be read here.
The Red Sea is a beloved diving destination and any spill would be heartbreaking. Available modelling only looks forward 3 weeks after the event with the direction of the spill, whether north or south, governed by the season. The immediate area is not commonly dived but I’ve seen, from a helicopter at least, the huge gatherings of whale sharks off neighbouring Djibouti that would be directly hit.
I don’t know what the potential impact would be to the areas I’m most familiar with in the Egyptian Red Sea, around 800 miles to the north. Will we be seeing oil covered birds, coral and dead fish? I think we can make a good guess that the marine ecosystem would be greatly damaged, whether for weeks, months or years.
The mission to prevent the FSO Safer spill is projected to cost $129 million of which $95 million has already been raised. The UN itself has acknowledged it has been challenging to raise funds to prevent rather than respond to a disaster. Due to the unknown condition of the vessel the removal of the oil is risky and by no means guaranteed. The offloading of oil and salvage is expected to take 3-4 months and is being led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
“We must accept that this a very challenging and complex operation. UNDP is working around the clock with experts from UN sister agencies… to ensure we are deploying the best possible expertise to successfully complete this operation” said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner.
It is good news that the UN has finally taken action, let’s hope it’s not too late. If you want to support the effort to prevent this disaster the UN is relaunching its crowdfunding appeal here.
