Red Sea: UN Ship Heads to FSO Safer to Transfer Crude oil

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Monday July 17, 2023

A very large crude carrier has left the port of Djibouti destined for FSO Safer, the stricken storage vessel in the Red Sea.

FSO Safer's million barrel cargo of crude oil presents an environmental risk and the arrival of the United Nations replacement vessel Nautica at the scene to offload the oil is the culmination of a multi-national effort to remove that threat from the environment.

The ship-to-ship transfer operation is being led by the United Nations Developement Programme.

"With the Nautica now en route, we expect the removal of oil from the[ FSO] Safer to begin in the next week. Removing the threat will be a huge achievement for the many people who have worked tirelessly on this complex and difficult project over months and years to bring us to this point," said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner.

UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, David Gressly, speaking from aboard the Nautica called the ship-to-ship transfer operation of the oil "an important milestone, but not the end of the operation". He thanked donors, private companies and the general public for "the funds that have brought us so far".

Among the organisations supporting the UN-directed effort are the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers and the Trafigura Foundation.

Ship & Bunker News Team
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