Oil from a “floating time bomb” oil ship that was abandoned at sea in the Red Sea has been successfully removed, according to the UN.
After a battle broke out in Yemen in 2015, the ship was abandoned there with more than a million barrels of oil still inside.
The failing FSO Safer was anticipated to explode or disintegrate, resulting in a significant leak.
The UN declared that an environmental catastrophe had been avoided, but it is unclear how the sale of the oil will be agreed upon by the warring parties.
The international community, according to German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, “defused a floating time bomb and prevented a potentially enormous environmental and health disaster.”
To secure the rotting ship and purchase another tanker to transport the recovered oil, the UN organised a $120 million (£95 million) fundraising effort.
The relocation in a body of water where naval mines were rumoured to be present took 18 days to complete.
When it was abandoned at sea in 1976, the FSO Safer was carrying more oil than was lost in the Exxon Valdez catastrophe of 1989.
It is anchored close to the Ras Isa oil port, which is under the opposition Houthi movement’s control in Yemen.
The gang is still engaged in combat with a Saudi-led coalition in a war that has left much of the nation in ruins.
The onerous work of decontaminating and scrapping the vessel is about to start, but it may be even more difficult to decide what will happen to the recovered oil, which is mostly controlled by the Yemeni state business SEPOC.
There is no agreement on how the proceeds from the sale of the oil will be distributed among the combatants.
Administrator of the UN’s development project Achim Steiner stated: “The best resolution to the story will be when that oil truly gets sold and completely departs the region.