Vessel’s departure is a significant development in the operation to remove more than a million barrels of oil from the decaying supertanker off Yemen’s Red Sea coast. Funding is still urgently needed to execute the safe removal of oil.
A very large crude carrier or VLCC set sail from Zhoushan, China as part of a United Nations-coordinated operation to remove more than a million barrels of oil from the decaying FSO Safer supertanker off Yemen’s Red Sea coast that threatens a humanitarian, environmental and economic catastrophe.
Secured last month by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the Nautica was in drydock in Zhoushan, China, for regular maintenance and modifications. The vessel is expected to arrive in early May. The Safer has been moored about nine kilometers off Yemen’s Ras Isa peninsula since 1988 and could explode or break up at any time.
UNDP, which is implementing the operation as part of a UN-coordinated initiative, is contracting the global leading marine salvage company SMIT to ready the Safer and safely carry out the ship-to-ship transfer of the oil.
More details: here.