International race to avert catastrophic Gulf oil-spill
IMO takes the lead to prevent ‘catastrophic environmental and humanitarian’ threat from deteriorating Red Sea storage vessel.
Moored five miles (8km) off the Yemeni coast, the ironically-titled FSO Safer – an abandoned 362m (1,188 ft) floating storage and offloading unit – hasn’t been properly inspected or maintained for almost six years.
FSO Safer contains 1.1 million barrels of crude oil – four times the amount spilled by Exxon Valdez.
Out of class since 2016, its continuing deterioration is causing increasing international concern, with fears it may soon start to leak, catch fire or explode. It contains 1.1 million barrels of crude oil – four times the amount spilled by Exxon Valdez in 1989 which caused devastating environmental damage to a thousand miles of Alaskan coastline.
Built as an ultra-large crude carrier (ULCC) in Japan in 1976, Safer was converted to an FSO in 1986. Since 1988 it has been moored at the Ras Isa terminal, where – prior to the start of the Yemeni Civil War in 2015 – it received, stored and exported crude oil flowing from the Marib oil fields.
The escalating conflict, however, caused all operations related to Safer to be suspended, despite that fact that so much crude oil remains onboard.
Imminent leakage in the Gulf
A recent peer-reviewed report by Frontiers In Marine Science has revealed that a massive leak from Safer is anticipated imminently now that seawater has breached the vessel’s single hull and entered the engine compartment. The report notes that ‘oil spots’ are beginning to show up near the vessel.
A fire aboard the vessel would expose more than eight million people in the region to harmful levels of pollutants.
“A spill would have disastrous environmental and humanitarian consequences,” explained Karine Kleinhaus, associate professor at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University, New York, who co-authored the report. “Oil spreading from Safer via ocean currents would devastate coral reefs and wildlife habitats in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba.
“With millions of barrels of oil passing through the Red Sea every day, a regional strategy must be drafted for leak prevention and containment specific to the area’s unique ecosystems, water currents, and political landscape.”
Potential regional impact
Modelling suggests that a major oil spill from the vessel would severely impact all of the fishing communities along Yemeni’s west coast – at a time when 90 per cent of the population now depends on humanitarian aid.
A fire aboard the vessel would expose more than eight million people in the region to harmful levels of pollutants and see the immediate closure of the key port of Al Hudaydah, creating steep increases in the price of food and fuel and hindering the delivery international of aid to millions of Yemenis.
Shipping routes through the Red Sea – which account for around 10 per cent of global trade – would also be severely impacted. Others within Safer’s danger zone include Djibouti, Eritrea, and Saudi Arabia.
IMO contingency plans in the Gulf
Houthis – the armed political movement in northern Yemen that controls access to the tanker – had, until recently, repeatedly denied United Nations (UN) requests to board and inspect the vessel.
However, a recent concession by the group means that the International Maritime Organization (IMO) can now, finally, start to put in place contingency planning efforts to deal with Safer by identifying teams able to coordinate and manage a spill response at national and local levels; assessing the current capacity to respond to a spill; and clarifying equipment and resource requirements.
The UN, meanwhile, has started preparing an assessment mission – to take place as soon as possible depending on weather conditions and funding – which will see a team board Safer to assess its structural integrity and carry out light repairs. They will not, however, be able to offload any of the oil.
“While the IMO is proactively working on contingency planning, we hope international efforts will succeed in paving the way to take necessary measures to prevent an oil spill,” said Patricia Charlebois, deputy director, Subdivision for Implementation at IMO. “Prevention is always better than cure, and we want to ensure adequate preparedness measures are in place.”
Dennis O’Neill is a journalist specialising in maritime.