Dutch ship arrives in Hodeida port to prevent Yemen oil spill from FSO
HODEIDA, May 31 (YPA) – A Dutch ship arrived on Tuesday at the port of Ras Isa in Hodeida province, to rescue and maintain the Floating Storage and Offloading (FSO) “Safer” vessel that is moored Yemen’s Red Sea coasts.
This move as part of the measures taken to secure the floating tank and work to avoid an oil leak from the ship in the northern Yemeni coast.
Upon the arrival of the ship and the Dutch maintenance team, the supervisory committee for the implementation of the urgent maintenance agreement and the comprehensive evaluation of the floating tank held a news conference, in the presence of local and international media outlets, to review the latest developments related to the efforts made in coordination with the international side to speed up the process of securing and unloading the FSO vessel.
During the conference, deputy Minister of Foreign in the Sanaa government, Hussein Al-Ezzi, praised the role of the Safer Committee and its extensive efforts in securing the ship, reaching effective solutions to save the tanker despite the critical challenges facing these efforts.
He stressed that the Supreme Political Council and the National Salvation Government’s readiness to implement all necessary steps to facilitate and expedite the rescue of the Safer ship, to carry out the process of unloading its oil, before an environmental disaster occurs, to ensure safe transportation, and to avoid any oil leakage.
For his part, Zaid Al-Washli, a head of the supervisory committee for the implementation of the urgent maintenance agreement and the comprehensive evaluation of the floating tank, explained that the Dutch ship was received to rescue and maintain the Safer ship, which is located in Ras Issa port, within the framework of what the United Nations team doing to address the current situation of the ship.
He stated that the committee currently working on arranging with the United Nations team regarding a plan to unload the amount of oil from the FSO ship, as a result of the systematic damage it suffered, which led to its systems being out of service, due to preventing its maintenance, laying off its technical staff, and preventing the arrival of diesel fuel for its engines.
In turn, Mr. David Gressly, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, touched on the steps that have been taken regarding the Safer ship, stressing that work to secure the ship will take place in four stages, including unloading oil from the reservoir, whose imminent collapse threatens a large-scale economic, humanitarian and environmental catastrophe in the Red Sea.
AA