International Maritime Organization (IMO) Secretary-General Kitack Lim has asked for further financial support for a UN-coordinated operational plan to remove oil from the
decrepit tanker FSO Safer , which has been moored off Yemen for more than six years
and is slowly rusting away – threatening a major oil spill in the region.
A pledging event in The Hague saw donors pledge just $33m in new funding, considerably short of the amount needed to complete the project. Lim said that “in the face of an
impending environmental disaster, we must do all we can to prevent it. We must
act now”.
Added to previously committed funds there was now $40m available for the operation,
which includes previously committed funds, but about $144m will be needed to
complete the shifting of the contents to another vessel – with the Houthi
rebels maintaining their claim over the contents of about 1m barrels of oil.
The pledging event had been hosted by the Government of the Netherlands and the UN, and there had been hopes that the $144m would be raised in one hit. However, the
line now is that it marked the beginning of a more long-term fund-raising effort.
