Mounting security threats in the Red Sea have stopped work on a decaying oil tanker turned storage unit off the coast of Yemen.

The 407,000-dwt FSO Safer (built 1976) is located in waters under the control of the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels.

“The situation has resulted in unforeseen operational and financial challenges for the Safer project, making it difficult to move forward,” a spokesperson for the UN Development Programme told Agence France-Presse (AFP).