Experts say abandoned ship is ticking time bomb
Experts and analysts are calling for urgent action on the FSO Safer, a rusting oil tanker off Yemen, fearing it could the Middle East’s next ticking time bomb after the explosion in Beirut last week.
The tanker, neglected for five years as were the ammonium nitrate stores in a Beirut port warehouse,
was once used as an offshore storage platform for Yemen’s oil exports.
Experts are calling for urgent action to secure the ship, which was built in 1976, so that it does not explode or leak its cargo of 1.14 million barrels of oil.
Long past its useful life, the single-hull ship is already showing signs of its age, with cracks appearing in the hull.
This is allowing seawater to seep inside, UN reports said.
The UN has discussed the vessel and is working to send a team of experts to carry out studies, but work to make the vessel safe or offload the cargo – valued at more than $80 million (Dh293.8m) – has been regularly delayed by the Iranbacked Houthi rebels, who control Hodeidah and access to the ship.
Ibrahim Jala, a Yemeni analyst and non-resident fellow at the Middle East Institute, last week urged action on the FSO Safer after the Beirut disaster in which 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate – commonly used as fertiliser and industrial explosive – abandoned for six years exploded.
He also said that 4,900 tonnes of ammonium nitrate were being stored at the port in Aden.
He described this and the FSO Safer as “nightmare” situations. If the oil aboard the FSO Safer leaks, analysts predict a catastrophe that would outstrip even some of the world’s worst oil spills, causing severe and irreparable damage to much of the Red Sea’s natural wildlife and coastline.