The United Nations said Tuesday that the operations to recover 1.1 million barrels of oil from a rotting tanker stranded off Yemen’s coast would begin soon after a technical support ship arrived on-site.
For years, UN experts have warned that the safer tanker might spill four times as much oil as the Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska in 1989.
“The Ndeavor tanker, accompanied by a technical team from Boskalis/SMIT, has arrived at the Safer tanker off the coast of Yemen’s Ras Isa”, said David Gressley, the U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen.
In 2015, the Safer’s maintenance works were halted due to the conflict in Yemen. The UN has warned that its structural integrity has deteriorated dramatically and that it is on the verge of exploding.
The United Nations initiated a fundraising campaign, including initiating a crowdfunding campaign, to raise the $129 million required to transfer the oil from the Safer to a replacement tanker, the Nautica, which set sail from China in early April.
The UN has stated that the salvage operation cannot be funded by the sale of the oil because it is unclear who owns it.
The UN further said, “Work at sea will start very soon. Additional funding is still important to finish the process”.
Yemen has been at war since the Iran-aligned Houthi militia overthrew the government in the capital Sanaa in late 2014.
In 2015, a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened to restore the government.
Peace initiatives have seen gained traction after Riyadh and Tehran decided in March to restore diplomatic ties that had been cut in 2016.
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