Boskalis steps in to avert oil tanker disaster

Boskalis’ subsidiary SMIT Salvage has been contracted by the United Nations Development Programme to remove oil from the FSO Safer in the Yemen, following fears that she could explode after so many years decaying in the Red Sea. 

In a UN-coordinated operation, more than a million barrels of oil – about 150,000 tonnes – will be transferred from the decaying tanker into a safe modern tanker before the vessel is disposed of.

“We have been assisting the UN in their endeavours to avert a potential massive environmental and humanitarian disaster off the coast of Yemen since 2021,” said Peter Berdowski, CEO, Boskalis.

”We are extremely delighted that these efforts and the perseverance of the UN to raise the necessary funds has brought us to this agreement. Following a long planning period, our salvage experts are keen to get to work and to remove the oil from the Safer.

Averting disaster

The Boskalis vessel Ndeavor will depart for Dijibouti imminently from its home port of Rotterdam, stocked with all the necessary salvage equipment to complete the mission.

Once the vessel and its cargo tanks are declared safe, a UN purchased Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) will come alongside, at which point the ship-to-ship oil pumping operation can commence. The tanks of the Safer will subsequently be cleaned and the residual water will also be transferred into the VLCC.

The entire onsite operation is expected to be completed within two months. Once the Safer is declared clean and empty, it will be prepared for towing to a scrapping yard under the responsibility of the UN.

The Safer is a Floating Storage and Offloading facility moored approximately 9km off the Red Sea coast of Yemen and 50km northeast of the port of Hodeida. Built in 1976 as an oil tanker and converted in 1987 to be a floating storage facility, the Safer is single-hulled and believed to contain an estimated 1.14 million barrels of light crude oil.

But the vessel has not been maintained since 2015 because of the conflict in Yemen and it has decayed to the point where it could explode or break apart, which would have disastrous environmental and humanitarian effects on the region.