Saudi Arabia Welcomes Completion of Transfer of Oil Cargo from Yemen’s Safer Tanker

A view of The Nautica, a replacement oil tanker, moored against the decaying FSO Safer, off the coast of Ras Issa, Yemen, in this screengrab taken from a recent undated handout video. (Safer Technical Committee/ Handout via Reuters)

Saudi Arabia welcomed on Friday the completion of the transfer of the oil cargo from the eroding FSO Safer tanker off the coast of Yemen.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry praised the efforts by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and his team at the organization who worked tirelessly to resolve the crisis related to the crisis.

It expressed its appreciation for the generous donations from donor countries that helped finance the transfer process.

Saudi Arabia was one of the top donors, with the funds being provided through the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center.

The Ministry also hailed the support from the Arab coalition that facilitated the transfer process.

The transfer of more than a million barrels of oil from the aging tanker moored off the coast of Hodeidah was completed on Friday, avoiding an environmental disaster.

An international team began siphoning the oil from the vessel on July 25. Almost all the oil is now aboard a replacement tanker called MOST Yemen.

Before the transfer, the Safer, which Yemen used as a floating storage and offloading facility, held four times as much oil as was spilled in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska, one of the world’s worst ecological catastrophes, according to the UN.

International organizations and rights groups warned for years of the potential for a spill or an explosion involving the tanker, which had not been maintained and has damaged pipes and seawater in its engine compartment.