By Al-Fassel | 2024-01-27

For years, the Iran-backed Houthis stalled and actively obstructed efforts to prevent an oil spill in the Red Sea of potentially catastrophic proportions by using the corroding oil tanker FSO Safer as a political bargaining chip.

Worries began to dissipate with the arrival last July of the United Nations (UN) owned tanker, the Nautica, and its subsequent operation to remove 1.14 million barrels of crude oil from the corroding hull.

They were further alleviated in August, when the UN announced the completion of a complex transfer of the oil to a new vessel, a crucial step in staving off an environmental and economic calamity, AFP reported.

But now the remainder of the work has stalled amid the Houthis' ongoing attacks on international merchant vessels in the Red Sea, heightening the threat of an ongoing environmental risk.

To complete the project, it is necessary to tow and scrap the Safer, which still poses "a residual environmental threat, holding viscous oil residue and remaining at risk of breaking apart," the UN said.

The situation has "resulted in unforeseen operational and financial challenges" for the Safer project, making it difficult to move forward, a spokesperson for the UN Development Program (UNDP) told AFP.

The UN is still appealing for urgent support to complete the operation.

Countries and other partners have pledged more than $121.2 million, but a significant funding gap remains as close to $21.8 million more is needed to fully fund the emergency phase of the operation, according to UNDP.

"After much consideration, the UN had no option but to pause the project at this time and has informed the authorities accordingly," the spokesperson said.

"We continue to follow developments on the ground very carefully and closely."

A delay for the Safer project "fits into the anti-US propaganda (the Houthis) are good at assembling," Bader al-Saif of Kuwait University told AFP.

The group "will use all cards at their disposal" to tarnish the international coalition formed to protect vessels in the Red Sea's shipping lanes, he said.

Potential for catastrophe

The Safer is moored off the Red Sea port of Ras Issa, within the coastal waters of the Houthi-controlled port of al-Hodeidah.

Maintenance operations on the Safer were suspended in 2015 because of Yemen's war, and the UNDP had for years warned it could "explode at any time."

For years, a skeleton crew of no more than eight sailors and engineers worked to keep the FSO Safer tanker afloat and stave off an environmental calamity.

The sinking of the vessel, or an on-board explosion, would have caused a massive oil spill, imperiling the coastal fishing villages upon which a large segment of the Yemeni population relies for their livelihoods.

The area's fishing industry has a half-million employees, and 200,000 livelihoods "would be instantly wiped out" in the event of such a spill, the UN said.

Since the Houthis began to attack international merchant vessels in the Red Sea in November with missiles and drones, many fishermen have been afraid to put out to sea, lest they get caught in the middle of the conflict.

They say the Houthis' attacks jeopardize the fishing profession and the income of more than a million families who live in coastal areas, mostly in al-Hodeidah province.

A large-scale oil spill could have affected lifeline ports and maritime traffic, caused an ecological disaster and forced the closure of desalination plants.

And the impact of such a spill could have reached as far as Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia, in addition to Yemen, causing a disaster that would cost more than $20 billion to clean up, per the UN.

Repeated warnings

The Yemeni government issued repeated warnings about a potential environmental catastrophe and raised the alarm after a pipe on the Safer was punctured some years ago, causing seawater to leak into the engine room.

But despite the danger, the Houthis continued to use the Safer as a bargaining chip, thereby threatening the security of the Red Sea, the government's economic committee said.

The group refused to allow maintenance to be performed on the vessel or to have its cargo offloaded by the UN, even though, according to the committee, the government offered multiple concessions to enable this to go ahead.

Though the transfer of oil from the Safer to the Nautica was completed in August, many issues remain, as the warring factions in Yemen still need to resolve the question of who owns the oil.

"Once we transfer the oil, we would have to then take care of the new vessel," Edrees al-Shami, the Houthi-appointed executive general manager of the Sanaa-based Safer company (SEPOC), said in July.

"So we move the problem from an older, aging vessel to a newer vessel," al-Shami said. "But the sea conditions are very rough, and if you don't maintain it for a while, then you go back to the same problem."