FSO ''Safer'' (pronounced "saffer" )
is a
floating oil storage and offloading vessel that is moored in the
Red Sea north of the Yemeni city of
Al Hudaydah
Al-Hudaydah ( ar, الْحُدَيْدَة, al-ḥudayda), also transliterated as Hodeda, Hodeida, Hudaida or Hodeidah, is the fourth-largest city in Yemen and its principal port on the Red Sea.
As of 2004, its population was 402,560 and it is ...
.
The ship holds more than 1.14 million barrels of oil. Its structure has been left exposed to humidity and corrosion with little or no maintenance since
Yemen's civil war started in 2015. An impasse exists between Houthi groups and the Saudi-backed government over its ownership and responsibility. Inert gas on the ship that normally inhibits an explosion has dissipated, putting it at risk of exploding and causing an environmental disaster.
History
''Safer'' was built in 1976 by the
Hitachi Zosen Corporation in Japan as the oil tanker ''Esso Japan''.
As built, her
gross tonnage
Gross tonnage (GT, G.T. or gt) is a nonlinear measure of a ship's overall internal volume. Gross tonnage is different from gross register tonnage. Neither gross tonnage nor gross register tonnage should be confused with measures of mass or weigh ...
was 192,679 and
deadweight tonnage 406,640 tons. She measured in length and her beam was .
She was powered by a single steam turbine that gave her a service speed of .
In 1987, ''Esso Japan'' was converted into an unpropelled storage vessel and renamed ''Safer''.
She was moored about off the coast of
Yemen in 1988 under the ownership of the Yemeni government via the
national oil company A national oil company (NOC) is an oil and gas company fully or in the majority-owned by a national government. According to the World Bank, NOCs accounted for 75% global oil production and controlled 90% of proven oil reserves in 2010.
Due to thei ...
, which used her to store and export oil from inland oil fields around
Ma'rib
Marib ( ar, مَأْرِب, Maʾrib; Old South Arabian: 𐩣𐩧𐩨/𐩣𐩧𐩺𐩨 ''Mryb/Mrb'') is the capital city of Marib Governorate, Yemen. It was the capital of the ancient kingdom of ''Sabaʾ'' ( ar, سَبَأ), which some scholars ...
.
In her storage configuration, ''Safer'' has a capacity of about three million
barrels
A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, u ...
of oil.
Loss of structural integrity
In March 2015, in the early days of the
Yemeni Civil War Yemeni Civil War may refer to several historical events which have taken place in Yemen:
*Alwaziri coup, February – March 1948
*Yemeni–Adenese clan violence, 1956–60
*North Yemen Civil War, 1962–70
*Aden Emergency, 1963–67
*South Yemen#Di ...
, ''Safer'' fell into the hands of
Houthi forces when they took control of the coastline surrounding her mooring.
In the following years, her structural condition deteriorated significantly, leading to the risk of a catastrophic hull breach or explosion of oil vapors that would typically be suppressed by inert gas generated on board.
The ship is estimated to contain about 1.14 million barrels of oil valued at up to US$80 million, which became a point of contention in negotiations between the Houthi rebels and Yemeni government, both of which asserted claims to the cargo and vessel.
In early December 2019, Al Jazeera reported that oil had begun to leak from ''Safer'',
though subsequent satellite imagery showed that the report had been inaccurate and there was no sign of oil outflow from the ship.
Following a leak in the cooling system, water entered the machine room, prompting the
United Nations Security Council to hold a special meeting about it in July 2020.
On 15 July 2020, the
United Nations warned that the FSO ''Safer'' could spill four times as much oil as the
''Exxon Valdez'' oil spill.
On 24 September 2020,
Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United Nations wrote in a letter that experts had observed that "a pipeline attached to the vessel is suspected to have been separated from the stabilizers holding it to the bottom and is now floating on the surface of the sea." In late November, the United Nations and Houthi leadership reached an agreement to allow a UN-led team access to ''Safer'' by January 2021 for purposes of inspection and repair. The expedition was delayed indefinitely when the Houthis failed to provide a letter assuring the safety of the UN-led team.
As of October 2021, it was being reported that the FSO ''Safer'' was at imminent risk of sinking, fire or explosion.
A massive spill would be disastrous, closing the ports of
Hudaydah and
As-Salif for weeks, disrupting the food aid on which half the population of the country depends. This could also cause a lack of fuel, necessary for pumping or delivering water, and could disrupt desalination plants in the area. A spill would also shut down the fishing industry on which 1.7 million people depend, and could disrupt world trade passing through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.
The potential cost of damage has been estimated at $20 billion.
On 5 March 2022
Mohammed al-Houthi
Mohammed Ali al-Houthi ( ar, محمد علي الحوثي; born 1979) is a Yemeni political figure who is the former President of the Revolutionary Committee or Revolutionary Council, a body formed by Houthi militants and the ''de facto'' Presid ...
signed an agreement with the
United Nations to pump the oil still in the decaying tanker into another ship to prevent a potential natural disaster. The cost of the salvage operation has been estimated at $80—144 million.
A conference held on 10 May 2022 in the Netherlands raised less than $40 million toward the $80 million cost of transferring the oil to a temporary storage ship. The U.N. launched a crowdfunding campaign (Link to this crowdfunding campaign given in the article is ).
In September 2022, the U.N. declared that it has raised sufficient money to carry out the first phase of the operation, and is looking to countries to provide the funds they pledged.
See also
*
FSO ''Nabarima''
References
{{reflist
External links
FSO Saferat
MarineTraffic
1976 ships
Floating production storage and offloading vessels
Ships built by Hitachi Zosen Corporation
Yemeni Civil War (2014–present)