The support ship arrives in Hodeidah.. The start of the first stages of saving the Safer reservoir

English - Tuesday 30 May 2023 الساعة 06:28 pm
Aden, NewsYemen, exclusive:

The United Nations announced the arrival of the support ship (Ndeavor) off the coast of Ras Issa in Al Hudaydah Governorate, in preparation for the start of the first rescue operations for the dilapidated Safer oil tank.

And the United Nations office in Yemen stated, on its Twitter account, that the support ship (Ndeavor) had arrived at the dilapidated Safer oil tank site off the coast of Ras Issa in Al-Hodeidah Governorate on the Red Sea, explaining that the support ship will start its work soon.

Regarding the lack of additional funding for the Safer rescue operation, estimated at about $24 million, the office emphasized that additional funding is still very important to finish the operation, and that the cost of inaction and saving the amount will be very high.

The support vessel Ndeavor arrived from Djibouti, having been fully equipped for the challenging mission. Its mission is to create a safe working environment on board the Safer tank, as well as to pump oil, after the process of checking the safety of the tank before proceeding with the subsequent steps, according to the UN emergency plan.

Ndeavor's mission is also to transfer more than one million barrels of oil in the "Safer" tank to the (Nautica) tanker - the alternative tanker that also departed from the coast of Djibouti towards the coast of Hodeidah -. The replacement vessel will also clean and prepare the rickety tank for towing to land for scrapping.

Achim Steiner, Director of the United Nations Development Program, said in a tweet on his Twitter account: The support ship includes a specialized crew, as well as equipment, supplies and technical supplies for implementing the United Nations plan to stop the oil spill in the Red Sea.

He added, that the ship, upon its arrival at the "Safer" reservoir, the technical teams on board will start checking the safety of the reservoir, for the first time since 2015, and then preparations will begin for the next phase of the rescue operation.

The UN official considered that this step is crucial before transferring the oil shipment from the tank to the replacement ship (Nautica), which will arrive at the site upon completion of the preparatory activities.

The United Nations was able to obtain more than 100 million US dollars to finance the Safer rescue plan, but there is a large financing gap close to 24 million US dollars that still exists to fully fund the emergency phase of the operation, which may lead to a delay in the start of the process while waiting. Complete the required funding.