The UN has initiated a complex operation to prevent a massive oil spill in the Red Sea, off the coast of Yemen. With the arrival of its ship, the Nautica, the transfer of crude oil currently stored in the dilapidated tanker, the SFO Safer, can begin. The operation is considered extremely "delicate" due to the presence of marine mines off the coast of Hodeida. FRANCE 24's Science Editor Julia Sieger tells us more.
Read moreTanker could spill oil along whole of Red Sea coast, UN warns
Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Read moreTanker could spill oil along whole of Red Sea coast, UN warns
Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Now a UN vessel has arrived in the waters off Yemen for a highly sensitive operation
00:05 transferring crude oil currently stored on board a dilapidated tanker off the coast of
00:11 Hodeidah.
00:12 No maintenance operations have been carried out since 2015 due to that ongoing conflict
00:17 in the region.
00:18 The operation is considered complex, but the UN believes there's no other alternative to
00:23 prevent a massive oil spill.
00:26 To take us through this is our science editor Julia Seeger.
00:31 What exactly is the story?
00:33 So the dilapidated supertanker is called the Safer and it's been anchored 50km off the
00:37 coast of Hodeidah in Yemen since the 1980s and indeed there hasn't been any maintenance
00:43 operations since 2015 because of the conflict that opposes the Houthi movement supported
00:49 by Iran and the government forces that are supported and backed by a military coalition
00:54 led by Saudi Arabia.
00:55 And indeed for several years now this tanker has posed the threat of exploding at any moment
01:00 and it's carrying four times the amount of crude oil than did the vessel that was involved
01:05 in the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989 which is still considered as one of the worst ecological
01:11 disasters in the world.
01:13 Now in the event of an oil spill it would of course have a consequence on the entire
01:17 region Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Somalia, Eritrea as well.
01:21 And the cost of cleaning alone, I'm not talking about the economic cost, but the cleaning
01:25 alone has been estimated to $20 billion by the UN.
01:28 So I'll let you just imagine the kind of economic damages this could trigger.
01:34 Now fearing an oil spill and because of the conflict the UN decided to take matters into
01:38 their own hands they raised money and they bought this ship called the Nautica which
01:41 has just docked next to the FSO Safer and they're now going to start pumping the oil
01:47 off the rusting ship which is also indeed a very difficult situation.
01:52 And why is it such a delicate operation?
01:54 Well because of the situation on the boat because it's so dilapidated but at the same
01:58 time because of extreme temperatures it's about 50 degrees Celsius in the Arabian Peninsula
02:03 in summer and that increases also the risks of slipping and tripping for the workers who
02:08 are also wearing these very heavy protective gear.
02:11 There's another problem Annette and that's marine mines because we are on a battlefield
02:16 here so here you see what a mine looks like.
02:19 It's actually a global problem but especially right now in Yemen.
02:23 I'm going to show you an explosion, there you go, an explosion of a marine mine.
02:29 So just imagine if there was such an explosion next to the tanker that is now filled with
02:33 over a billion barrels of petrol.
02:36 So what they had to do, the operation is going to last three weeks, it has already started,
02:41 they had to secure the entire boat so they looked at every valve, the mooring to make
02:46 sure that it hasn't changed.
02:48 The tank atmosphere is considered to be unsafe because of cargo vapor.
02:52 They had to inject inert gas into every one of the tanks to make the situation stable
03:01 on the boat and that's also to stop, to reduce the risk of explosion and fire.
03:07 Now with the arrival of the UN ship they're now going to start transferring the equivalent
03:11 of a billion barrels of oil and that's also going to be highly sensitive.
03:15 If everything goes well it will then be towed to a scrap yard.
03:18 And this of course all happening at extremely high temperatures too.
03:21 So what is going to happen to the recovered oil?
03:24 So that's a great question.
03:25 They're going to have to first evaluate the quality of the oil, if it has been contaminated
03:29 by seawater or other substances and the ownership of the oil is also a question because the
03:35 rivalry between the Houthis and the government is still ongoing even though the violence
03:41 on the ground has reduced considerably.
03:44 But the UN says that it first decided to negotiate this, preventing this massive spill and now
03:51 they're going to start, if everything goes well, they will have to negotiate on who's
03:55 going to take that oil and who's going to get the revenue from it.
03:59 Indeed, a difficult operation on so many levels.
04:01 Thank you so much Julia.