A United Nations-owned VLCC has arrived off the coast of Yemen in preparation for the transfer of more than 1.1m barrels of oil from a decaying floating storage and offloading unit.
The 307,300-dwt Nautica (built 2008) left Djibouti on Saturday and has stopped off the Yemen port of Hodeidah before the final approach alongside the FSO Safer.
The 406,600-dwt FSO Safer (built 1976) has not been maintained since 2015 amid Yemen’s civil war.
The UN raised more than $100m to buy the Nautica and prepare for the ship-to-ship operation to the newer ship.
“I am excited to be aboard and for the start of the oil transfer next week,” said David Gressly, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in Yemen.
The transfer is expected to take about two weeks. Dutch salvage team Boskalis has been at the Safer since early June to prepare it for the operation.
Divers have inspected the hull of the vessel, while the salvage team has pumped inert gas into its tanks to reduce the risk of an explosion.
Experts have warned for years that the Safer has been at risk, and spilling its cargo in a disaster that would cost about $20bn to clear up. The Safer is carrying four times as much oil as was spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska in 1989.
Officials said billions of dollars more would be lost to global trade, owing to the blockage of the Bab al-Mandab strait leading to the Suez Canal.
The UN continues to appeal for funds to pay for the green scrappage of the Safer once the oil has been removed. It said the total cost of the operation will reach $129m.
The Nautica will remain moored in the area once the operation is completed. Ownership of the oil remains contested between the internationally recognised government and the Iran-backed Houthis, who seized the capital, Sanaa, in 2014 and who control Hodeidah.
