Perhaps its name does not tell you much, but if nothing prevents it, it is likely that the FSO Safer will end up joining the Odyssey, Prestige or Exxon Valdez in the long and infamous list of oil tankers that have been involved in serious fuel spills. Tricks are not lacking, of course, to repeat any of these catastrophes and release tons of crude oil into the oceans. It is so dangerous that the UN sees it as a “time bomb” in the middle of the Red Sea and coordinates a plan to neutralize its threat.
Now he is looking for 80 million dollars to activate it.
What is FSO Safer? Basically, a dilapidated ship full of tons of oil that now threatens the Red Sea. Of course, it wasn’t always a danger. Her history dates back almost half a century, to 1976, when she left the shipyards of Japan to operate as a Crude Oil Carrier (ULCC). Ten years later, however, her owners decided to give her a new use and she was converted into a floating storage and offloading (FSO) unit.
Since 1988 it has been moored in Ras Isa, on the coast of Yemen, washed by the waters of the Red Sea. The convulsive political scene in the country has affected it fully, however, and since 2015 it has not passed inspections or been maintained. The problem: she is still loaded with oil.
How much oil are we talking about? The International Maritime Organization (IMO), a UN agency, estimates that 150,000 MT of oil remain on board, the equivalent of 1.1 million barrels. That would be more or less four times the amount spilled during the Exxon Valdez tragedy in 1989, which caused one of the biggest environmental disasters in US history. That huge amount of crude oil is located today about 4.8 nautical miles – about 8.9 kilometers – southwest of the Ras Issa peninsula, on the coast of Yemen.
The impact of an oil spill in the Red Sea from #FSOSafer in the water could be far wider than anticipated, about 850,000 tonnes of fish stocks that exist in Yemen’s waters in the Red Sea, Bab El Mandab & Gulf of Aden would be destroyed.#SalvageTheSAFER#HolmAkhdar #YemenCantWait pic.twitter.com/whyNcUZXPS
— حلم أخضر Holm Akhdar (@holmakhdar) May 6, 2022
And what is the condition of the boat? Not too good. Some experts even refer to it as a “ticking time bomb”. The ship has been operating as an FSO in the area since the late 1980s and, until the escalation of the Yemeni conflict complicated its future, it stored crude from the Marib oil fields. The problem is that during the last years its conservation has been zero. The IMO itself does not hide its “serious concerns about the integrity” of the ship and, although it points out that to date there is no evidence of leaks, it insists on its message: “It is considered that the risk of a spill from the FSO Safer is increasing as their equipment continues to deteriorate.”
“The risks associated with the FSO are the possible structural failure of the unit due to lack of maintenance, which could result in a failure of the storage tanks due to a fracture in the hull or a large release due to an explosion of the structure”, reflects the international agency. In March, a UN-led mission to the Ras Isa peninsula was able to confirm in fact that the 45-year-old supertanker is rapidly deteriorating: “It is at imminent risk of spilling a massive amount of oil through leakage or explosion.”
Abandoned oil tanker in front of #Yemen could cause the worst oil spill in history Since the Yemeni civil war, the ship #FSO Safer has run out of maintenance. Problem: It contains more than a million barrels of oil.#YemenCantWaithttps://t.co/0mxWD1rZUr pic.twitter.com/yLhO6sXIIa
– Manel Marquez (@manelmarquez) January 28, 2022
What would happen if the worst predictions come true? It is not easy to specify. The extent of the “black footprint” of the Safer would depend a lot on factors such as the amount of leaked oil, the weather or the state of the sea. IMO has already analyzed several scenarios to assess how it would affect; but something is clear as a starting point: “It would be a great humanitarian and environmental disaster.”
The agency points out that a hypothetical spill could affect the Yemeni islands in the Red Sea, especially Kamara. Nor does it rule out the possibility that the ship ends up moving and affecting other neighboring countries, such as Djibouti, Eritrea and Saudi Arabia. Its impact would be felt in an area with vulnerable ecosystems including mangroves and coral reefs.
In addition to this environmental blow, the deployment of tar could have serious social and economic consequences. In its path, the crude oil would find desalination plants and ports, including the strategic Hudaydah port. Of course, the fishing communities of the Red Sea would be seriously affected: more than 200,000 fishermen would lose their jobs.
What is the UN plan? Its technicians propose a strategy with two lines of action. The first consists of an “emergency operation” to transfer the oil from the Safer to another ship, a temporary and safe location for four months. With that first step —argues IMO— the “immediate threat” represented by the FSO would be eliminated. The next phase would be to prepare a ship in which the crude oil can remain permanently.
Completed that schedule, which the UN draws in a period of 18 months, the temporary ship would be withdrawn and the Safer would be towed to a warehouse, sold and recycled. The total cost of the plan is around 80 million dollars. as required Guardian, the international organization has already activated the machinery to obtain the funds. It may seem like a lot, but it is small change when compared to the 20,000 million that, it is estimated, the cleaning work would require.
“That doesn’t count the cost of environmental damage in the Red Sea or the billions that could be lost due to disruptions to shipping through the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which is also a passageway to the Suez Canal,” says David Gressly of the United Nations.
Simulation showing the concentration of oil in the event of a spill
A complicated context. If the delicate state of FSO Safer were not already a challenge, the political situation in Yemen does not help. The country has been immersed in an armed confrontation since 2014 and experts have encountered problems in meeting the challenge. “The ongoing conflict and resulting instability in the region has a significant impact on contingency planning work. There are challenges in collecting complete and up-to-date information. The situation would also affect the ability to mount a response in the event of a spill,” says IMO.
Despite this context, the international agency assures that the plan has received the support of the Yemeni government, based in Aden, and has also signed a “memorandum of understanding” with the de facto authorities of the capital, Sanaa. Their role is key, as they control the area where the FSO Safer is located. The aim of the agreement would be to establish a “cooperation framework”.
In explaining its plan, the UN does not specify what will happen to the oil once it is withdrawn, but Guardian It specifies that its final container will still be in the area and the new ship will provide the Houthis with the security that, once the war is over, they could operate an oil export industry. The time to neutralize the Safer threat is ticking. “We need to finish this operation at the end of September to avoid the turbulent winds that start in the latter part of the year… which increases the risk of a rupture and when doing any operation”, Gressly stresses.
Images | Stéphane M. Gross (Flickr) and Wikimedia
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism