The floating storage and offloading (FSO) facility “Safer”, an ageing oil tanker off Yemen’s Red Sea coast, will cost approximately $20 billion to clean up if oil spills, according to United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen David Gressly.
The 45-year-old FSO Safer, long used as a floating oil storage platform with 1.1 million barrels of crude on board, has been moored off Yemen’s western Red Sea port of Hodeida since 2015, without being serviced, according to AFP news agency.
During a media briefing at the UNDP Regional Hub Office for Arab States in Amman, Gressly emphasised the threat the vessel poses.
It is a “catastrophe waiting to happen”, he said.
Gressly noted that the vessel has not had any maintenance “for years” and is “rapidly getting worse every day”, which may lead to a major humanitarian, economic and environmental catastrophe.
“The impact of any spilled oil will be catastrophic,” he said. The vessel holds four times the amount of oil than the Exxon Valdez, which spilled in 1989.
If oil were to spill from the vessel, it would have a “tremendous” effect on the environment, as well as would damage shipping, tourism, fishing, and the livelihoods of people who are already suffering, Gressly said.
He noted that the damage could potentially also reach other countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Djibouti and Somalia, as well as potentially impact tourism in Egypt and Jordan.
However the civil war and conflict in Yemen makes it very difficult because “we need all parties to cooperate”, who are currently in conflict, said Gressly.
“It is necessary to find an agreement and also extremely important to have everyone on board for the initiative,” he said.
He indicated that the government of Yemen and the Sanaa-based authorities have committed to facilitating the success of the project.
Gressly noted that during the meeting a two-step plan was agreed upon. While working to replace the existing FSO with one of equivalent storage capacity, which can take up to 18 months, the oil will be placed in a temporary vessel, so it does not pose a threat to the environment any longer, he said.
The budget for the two-track operation is $144 million, including $79.6 million for the emergency operation, which is higher due to the “highly insecure” environment, according to Gressly.
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UK, French fishermen meet in English Channel protest to ban supertrawlers
Fishermen from the UK and France have met in the English Channel to protest against industrial fishing practices.
Boats from Dover, Rye, Newhaven and Boulogne-sur-mer gathered in the Bassurelle Sandbank marine protected area.
They called for politicians to ban supertrawlers and fly-shooting from protected Channel waters.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said vessels must follow UK sustainability rules.
Bottom trawling and fly-shooting are destructive types of fishing which involve dragging weighted nets across the sea floor.
Fisherman Martin Yowarth from Newhaven, East Sussex, said: “We all want the same thing, healthy oceans full of fish for many generations to come, sadly our governments continue to ignore us.”
Mr Yowarth said politicians had “promised so much, but have delivered nothing.”
“We need fly-shooters and supertrawlers banned now, before more French and English fishing jobs disappear forever,” he said.
The protest was jointly organised by Greenpeace, Bloom and Pleine Mer, which is based in France.
Greenpeace UK oceans campaigner Fiona Nicholls said politicians were continuing to ignore calls from fishing communities on both sides of the Channel.
Ms Nichols added: “The UK government must end destructive industrial fishing in all of the UK’s protected areas, and it has the perfect chance to do so at the end of this year, when the fishing licenses for all vessels come under review.”
In a statement Defra said: “The new licensing framework within the Fisheries Act allows us to apply conditions to the activities of all fishing vessels in our waters – regardless of their nationality.
“All vessels need to abide by UK rules around sustainability and access to our ‘Blue Belt’ of protected waters.”