Oil Minister affirms Sanaa’s keenness to tackle Safer oil tanker problem

SANAA, Nov. 17 (YPA) – Minister of Oil and Minerals, Ahmed Daris, affirmed on Wednesday the keenness of the Supreme Political Council and its government in Sanaa to tackle the problems regarding Safer oil tanker as soon as possible.

This came during his meeting with Nahid Hussein, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative, and Samia Alduaij, an environmental and emergency response expert at the United Nations Development Program.

In the meeting, Daris indicated that the marine environment is threatened by the UN failure to deal with the issue of “Safer” floating tank, which holds one million and 200 thousand barrels of oil off the Red Sea coasts without undergoing any maintenance for years.

The minister explained that any oil spill would harm the marine environment, the coasts of Yemen and the countries bordering the Red Sea, stressing the importance of activating the agreement signed with the United Nations to maintain the ship and develop solutions to prevent any disaster.

He expressed his regret over the United Nations’ retreat from the agreement signed to assess and maintain the Safer reservoir to spare the marine environment an imminent disaster.

Meanwhile, UNDP’s officials stressed the importance of finding emergency plans for the floating tank, working on a successful response, and developing the capabilities of local communities to address any disaster.

AA