Following a pledge by the US to add $10m to the fund being organized by the UN to pay for
the safeguarding of the crude oil on slowly decaying hulk FSO Safer off the coast of Yemen, the UN launched a social media campaign on Monday June 13th in an attempt to push the fund-raising effort “over the line”.
The goal is to raise funds to start the $80m needed to transfer oil from the FSO Safer to a
temporary vessel. The tanker is beyond repair and has been slowly decaying for more than five years. At 376 m long, it is among the largest tankers in the world, and holds roughly four times the crude oil that was spilled during the Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska in 1989.
It has been anchored just a few miles off the Yemen coast for more than 30 years, used as
an offshore storage facility, but the war between the Saudi-backed pro-government coalition and Iran-backed Houthi rebels ended any offloading from the vessel from 2015 on. Maintenance of the ship also halted.
The UN has wanted to implement an emergency rescue operation for some time, and a
tentative agreement had been reached with the Houthis – who claim ownership of the oil on board – as to how this could be achieved. All that was lacking was cash.
About three-quarters of the money required had now been received, following the
announcement of a $10m pledge by Saudi Arabia last week. With the US $10m, that
would increase to seven-eighths.
The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, David Gressly, wants to raise $5m in
individual donations by the end of June so that work can start in July.
The more modest target of $80m seems to have taken over from the initial fundraising target –$144m. That larger figure would include the second half of the two-stage rescue
operation, involving the installation of a permanent replacement vessel for the FSO Safer.
