03:36

UN team begins to transfer oil from decaying tanker off Yemeni coast

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STORY: UN team begins to transfer oil from decaying tanker off Yemeni coast
DATELINE: July 26, 2023
LENGTH: 00:03:36
LOCATION: HODEIDAH, Yemen
CATEGORY: SOCIETY
 
SHOTLIST:
1. various of the Nautica, the UN replacement vessel (now renamed as the Yemen)
2. various of the two tankers anchored next to each other as the transfer process begins
3. various of the handover ceremony held on the Yemen on July 17, where David Gressly, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, signed the documents with Houthi officials
3. various of the Nautica, the UN replacement vessel (now renamed as the Yemen)
 
STORYLINE:
 
The emergency team of the United Nations began on Tuesday a risky operation to transfer crude oil from the decaying tanker abandoned off Yemen's western coast, the official Yemen TV reported.
 
The UN team has started to offload more than one million barrels of crude oil from Safer, a floating storage and offloading facility (FSO) anchored in the Red Sea near the coast of the Hodeidah Province, the state TV said, citing official sources.
 
The operation is estimated to last around two weeks.
 
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a video message on Tuesday that "we need to keep working to defuse what remains a ticking time bomb and avoid what would be by far the worst oil spill of our era." 
 
David Gressly, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, said earlier this month that after the ship-to-ship transfer of the oil, the replacement vessel, officially renamed Yemen, will be attached to a catenary anchor leg mooring buoy, which will be firmly anchored to the seabed.
 
On Saturday, the UN team managed to safely berth the Yemen tanker alongside the deteriorating FSO Safer, days after completing safety measures, including running a generator to spread thwarting gas inside Safer to emit any possible explosion.
 
The Safer, originally constructed as a supertanker in 1976 and later converted to an FSO for oil, is currently moored approximately 4.8 nautical miles off the coast near Hodeidah.
 
It is now under the control of the Houthis. However, the internationally recognized government of Yemen also asserts ownership of the tanker and its crude oil. The disputes between the two sides have disrupted the regular maintenance of the tanker, resulting in its decay over the years.
 
The UN has warned that a spill from the FSO Safer could have a devastating impact on the Red Sea and the coastline of Yemen. The spill could release four times as much oil as the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, which killed thousands of seabirds and marine mammals and caused widespread environmental damage.
 
It would also lead to the closure of the essential ports of Hodeidah and Saleef, which are crucial for bringing food, fuel, and life-saving supplies into Yemen, where 17 million people need food assistance.
 
Earlier this month, the UN said it had raised about 118 million U.S. dollars out of the estimated 148-million-dollar budget for the emergency rescue project for Safer.
 
Hodeidah port city has been under Houthi control since the eruption of the civil war in late 2014, when the Houthi group seized control over much of the country's north and drove the internationally recognized government out of the capital Sanaa.
 
Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Hodeidah, Yemen.
(XHTV)

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