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Nine kilometers off the coast of Yemen in the Red Sea lies a 368 meter long ship, the “FSO Safer”. FSO stands for Floating Storage and Offloading.

FSO Safer, the name is an illusion. Because the huge oil tanker is many things, just not “safe”. It is a floating time bomb with 400 million liters of oil in it. A small spark, a cigarette butt or a loose shot from a gun would be enough to blow up the ship. Because the machines on the ship that pump special gases into the tanks to prevent explosive mixtures from forming there have not been running for six years.

A permanent storage space

But how did it come to this? The “Safer” had been used as an anchored storage unit in Yemen since the 1980s. It stored oil that came in by pipeline from inland fields and was then exported. But after Yemen descended into civil war in 2015 and Houthi rebels took the capital Sanaa, oil production and exports were halted.

State oil company SEPOC stopped expensive maintenance. The Safer was decommissioned in 2016 – with 181 million liters of oil still on board. In 2017, the tanker was declared “dead” because the steam boiler on board stopped working.

Breakthrough for the Safer?

181 million liters of oil. That’s four times the amount that poured into the ocean from the Exxon Valdez in 1989 — and it’s still synonymous with environmental disaster to this day.

To prevent a new – and much bigger – environmental disaster, efforts have been made for years to get the oil out of the tanker. But the Houthi rebels have so far refused any bailout.

But now a breakthrough could have come. A United Nations tanker would have to reload the oil.

The beacon of hope is Peter Berdowski. His people liberated ‘Ever Given’ two years ago when they blocked the Suez Canal for six days, the Tagesanzeiger writes. With the ship “Ndevor” he is on his way to the bomb.

In mid-April the Ndevor sailed from Rotterdam towards the Red Sea. Almost two weeks earlier, a second ship left on the other side of the world: the “Nautica”. According to the “Tagesanzeiger”, the Nautica started in Zhoushan, a port near Shanghai.

The two ships will meet in Djibouti. And then the plan is: The crew of the “Ndevor” has to pump the oil from the Safer into the “Nautica”.

“The best conditions for eight years”

Can that work? “We now have the best conditions to solve this problem for eight years,” Achim Steiner told the “Tagesanzeiger”. Steiner is head of the UN development program.

But there are also critical voices. For example, that of Ian Ralby, adviser on maritime law and maritime safety. He has been working on the ship for years and finds the plan incomplete: “A terribly risky approach”, he says when asked by the “Tagesanzeiger”. And he adds:

Trust the Houthi rebels

It is clear that the local population depends on the help of the Houthi rebels. Because only they know how to move safely through the partly reclaimed waters.

But why don’t the Houthi rebels want to prevent the catastrophe? Even among them, opinions would be divided. Some see the catastrophe coming and want to get rid of the problem as soon as possible, others want to use the ship as leverage in the war.

Steiner of the UN is not giving up hope, as he told the “Tagesanzeiger”: “We hope that the peace negotiations will create a situation where the new ship is accessible and its maintenance can be assured.” To Ralby, on the other hand, that sounds naive. He tells the “Tagesanzeiger”:

The worst case scenarios

If all goes well, rescuers will bring generators on deck to avert the risk of explosion. When the danger of explosion in the tanks has passed and the Houthis have kept their agreement, the “Nautica” can approach the ship and pump the oil from the old tanker.

And what if things don’t go well? Then, according to the “Tagesanzeiger”, there are two worst case scenarios:

The ports would have to close because of the oil slick, the fish would probably be contaminated for 25 years, no food, no fuel and no aid packages would enter the country. Hunger would overtake Yemen even more. There would also be a lack of drinking water because, among other things, the desalination plants on the coasts could no longer work properly. The oil would also be catastrophic for life in the Red Sea.

Goal achieved – and then?

A few days ago, the ship from Rotterdam arrived in the port of Djibouti, Steiner tells the medium Bayern 2. The intention is to start pumping in June. According to Steiner, it is all a very unusual but necessary action for the United Nations.

You don’t know what will happen in the near future. One thing is certain: even if the rescue operation succeeds and the oil is pumped into the new ship, the next question remains unanswered: who will tow away the damaged ship and scrap the saver?