The Netherlands is contributing another 7.5 million euros to the salvage operation of the FSO Safer, an oil tanker off the coast of Yemen. Minister Liesje Schreinemacher (Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, VVD) said so on Saturday announced while visiting Yemen. With the promise, the goal of the United Nations has been achieved and the salvage attempt can begin.
The FSO Safer is often referred to as a “ticking time bomb”. The Yemeni owner abandoned the ship in 2015 when civil war broke out on the mainland. The ship is in poor condition, and could spill more than a million barrels of oil into the sea in a severe storm. That would be not only an environmental disaster, but also a humanitarian disaster. According to The New Yorker Two-thirds of Yemen’s food enters through a port that, in the worst case scenario, would have to be closed for months. Fishing would also be wiped out.
Now that the required 80 million dollars has been received, the Rotterdam company Smit Salvage can start with the job to transfer the oil from the FSO Safer to another vessel. The first step is an inspection of the equipment on the ship. There is some haste: in winter the chance of bad weather increases, and with it a break in the ship.
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