The United Nations is set to kick off the process of unloading the cargo of the eroding Safer tanker off the coast of Yemen.
A UN vessel has arrived in Yemen and the 1.1 million barrels of oil held on Safer will be unloaded in it. The operation should take up eight months in line with a UN plan that was received by the Yemeni government and Iran-backed Houthi militias.
The whole operation is set to cost $148 million. The first phase, lasting about three months, will cost $129 million.
The UN Development Program (UNDP) had in March purchased a crude carrier to remove the cargo from the beleaguered FSO Safer.
The 47-year-old Safer has not been serviced since Yemen's devastating war broke out in 2015 and was left abandoned off the Houthi-held port of Hodeidah, a critical gateway for shipments into the country heavily dependent on emergency foreign aid.
Asharq Al-Awsat received a copy of the UN plan that will be carried out by the SMIT Salvage company. The first phase will cover the preparations for the unloading, obtaining permits, equipment and staff. Safety and medical procedures will be also put in place to ensure a safe environment for workers.
The atmosphere in the oil cargo holds is expected to be unsafe due to the accumulation of flammable cargo vapors and the lack of inert gas. This needs to resolved by pumping inert gas into the holds using a portable inert gas generator, said a statement by SMIT Salvage.
Each of the cargo tanks needs to be checked and declared safe before the actual oil removal process can commence.
The second phase of the plan will take up seven weeks.
Once the vessel and its cargo tanks are declared safe, the UN purchased carrier will come alongside at which point the ship-to-ship oil pumping operation can commence, said the statement.
The actual ship-to-ship transfer of the oil is expected to take 19 days. Numerous hydraulic pumps will be lowered into each tank and all pumpable oil will be pumped into the Ndeavor carrier. During the transfer operation inert gas will be supplied to keep the tank atmosphere at safe levels throughout the operation.
The tanks of the Safer will subsequently be cleaned and the residual water will also be transferred into the carrier. The entire onsite operation is expected to be completed within two months.
Once all the pumpable oil has been removed from the Safer, there will still be a small layer of thick oil in the bottom of the tanks and the walls will still be covered with a residual film. A mobile spray tank cleaning machine will be used in the tanks to clean the inside. The remaining dirty water is then also transferred to the carrier.
Once the Safer is declared clean and empty, it will be prepared for towing to a green scrapping yard under the responsibility of the UN.
The outcome of this part of the operation is a clean and safe Safer which can be dismantled at dedicated location.
