The United Nations announced that the replacement oil tanker for the “Safer” has begun its journey towards the Red Sea, after completing its maintenance work and making appropriate modifications to it in a dry dock in Zhoushan, China.
According to the information, the tanker Nautica sailed to the Red Sea today, after completing routine maintenance procedures and modifications to them.
She described the step as important, and the main one to move forward with the complex process led by the United Nations to remove oil from the “Safer” tanker, and to prevent a large-scale environmental, economic and humanitarian catastrophe that would affect all countries bordering the Red Sea.
For his part, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, David Gresley, said that the replacement tanker had left Zhoushan on its way to the Red Sea, but stressed the urgent need to close the financing gap to start the rescue operation and prevent a major oil spill.
According to the United Nations, the revised budget for the first phase of the operation, including the transportation of crude oil from “Safer”, amounts to 129 million dollars, while the pledges it has obtained so far amount to 95 million dollars, which means that 34 million are needed. dollars to start implementing the first phase of the emergency rescue operation, and therefore the start of the unloading process depends to a large extent on closing the existing financing gap.
It is expected that the replacement tanker will arrive at the site of the floating tank "Safer", which is anchored off the port of Ras Issa on the western coast of Yemen, in early May to complete the transfer process.
According to the Dutch “Smith Salvage” company, which is implementing the plan to save the Safer oil tank, it will start the work phase to install the new tanker and transport crude oil from “Safer”, during the months of June and July, and the process may extend until mid-August.
Saeed Al-Jaafari (Aden) @saeed_aljafare
