UN Technical Vessel Arrives at Rusting Oil Tanker off Yemen’s Coast as Salvage Operation Begins

This handout picture released on May 30, 2023 courtesy of Boskalis shows the first photos of the FSO Safer taken from the salvage vessel Ndeavor near the coast of Yemen. (Handout / Boskalis / AFP)
This handout picture released on May 30, 2023 courtesy of Boskalis shows the first photos of the FSO Safer taken from the salvage vessel Ndeavor near the coast of Yemen. (Handout / Boskalis / AFP)
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UN Technical Vessel Arrives at Rusting Oil Tanker off Yemen’s Coast as Salvage Operation Begins

This handout picture released on May 30, 2023 courtesy of Boskalis shows the first photos of the FSO Safer taken from the salvage vessel Ndeavor near the coast of Yemen. (Handout / Boskalis / AFP)
This handout picture released on May 30, 2023 courtesy of Boskalis shows the first photos of the FSO Safer taken from the salvage vessel Ndeavor near the coast of Yemen. (Handout / Boskalis / AFP)

The first technical salvage vessel arrived Tuesday near the rusting Safer oil tanker floating off the coast of Yemen, the United Nations said.

The arrival of Ndeavor, which set off from neighboring Djibouti on Monday, marks the first step of an estimated four- to six-week UN operation aiming to avert a major oil spill from the tanker, representatives from the international body announced.

Experts say the tanker poses a major environmental threat.

A team of experts on the Cypriot-flagged Ndeavor are expected to begin pumping inert gas to remove atmospheric oxygen from the oil chambers of the Safer on Wednesday, said David Gressly, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Yemen.

Transferring the estimated 1.14 million barrels of oil to a different tanker could start in around two weeks, he said from aboard the Ndeavor. After the transfer is complete, the Japan-made oil tanker will eventually be towed away and scrapped, he said.

The Safer was built in the 1970s and sold to the Yemeni government in the 1980s to store up to 3 million barrels of oil pumped from fields in Marib, a province in central Yemen. But the nation has been engulfed for years in war and no annual maintenance has been carried out on the ship, which is 360 meters (1,181 feet) long with 34 storage tanks, since 2015.

The Safer is anchored around 30 kilometers (19 miles) northwest of the port city of Hodeidah, which is controlled by the Iran-backed Houthi militias.



Official: Iraqi Oil Minister Stable after Surgery in US

FILE PHOTO: Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs and Minister of Oil, Hayan Abdul Ghani Al-Swad, attends a signing ceremony of the Gas Growth Integrated Project (GGIP) in Baghdad, Iraq, July 10, 2023. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs and Minister of Oil, Hayan Abdul Ghani Al-Swad, attends a signing ceremony of the Gas Growth Integrated Project (GGIP) in Baghdad, Iraq, July 10, 2023. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani/File Photo
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Official: Iraqi Oil Minister Stable after Surgery in US

FILE PHOTO: Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs and Minister of Oil, Hayan Abdul Ghani Al-Swad, attends a signing ceremony of the Gas Growth Integrated Project (GGIP) in Baghdad, Iraq, July 10, 2023. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs and Minister of Oil, Hayan Abdul Ghani Al-Swad, attends a signing ceremony of the Gas Growth Integrated Project (GGIP) in Baghdad, Iraq, July 10, 2023. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani/File Photo

Iraqi oil minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani is in stable condition after receiving emergency heart surgery during an official visit to the United States, an oil ministry official who is part of the Iraqi delegation said on Saturday.

Abdel-Ghani arrived in the US earlier this week on a trip aimed at courting US companies to invest in Iraq’s energy sector.

The oil ministry official told Reuters he fell ill and was rushed to hospital during the trip and underwent heart catheterization surgery.

"He’s out from the operating theater and is in a stable condition," the official said.

Abdel-Ghani and other oil ministry officials could not immediately be reached for comment.