UN Warns 'Imminent' Yemen Oil Spill Would Cost $20 bn to Clean Up
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The United Nations warned Monday that it would cost $20 billion to clean up an oil spill in the event of the "imminent" break-up of an oil tanker abandoned off Yemen.
"Our recent visit to (the FSO Safer) with technical experts indicates that the vessel is imminently going to break up," the UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, David Gressly, said ahead of a conference, hosted by the UN and The Netherlands, to raise funds for an emergency operation to prevent an oil spill.
The 45-year-old FSO Safer, long used as a floating oil storage platform with 1.1 million barrels of crude on board , was used to store Yemeni oil before the Saudi-led coalition launched its devastating war on Yemen. It has since been moored off the Hudaydah, without being serviced.
"The impact of a spill will be catastrophic," Gressly said, adding that its effect on the environment would be “tremendous” and that $20 billion would be required “just to clean the oil spill."
"The impact of a spill will be catastrophic," Gressly continued at a briefing in Amman. "The effect on the environment would be tremendous... our estimate is that $20 billion would be spent just to clean the oil spill."
His remarks came as the top officials of the UN and the Netherlands are set to host a conference on Wednesday to raise funds for an emergency operation to prevent the oil spill.
Last month, the UN said it was seeking nearly $80 million for its operation. It warned of "a humanitarian and ecological catastrophe centered on a country already decimated by more than seven years of war".
Last month, the UN said it was seeking about $80 million for the emergency part of a two-stage operation aimed to avert the crisis.
The world body warned of "a humanitarian and ecological catastrophe centered on a country already decimated by more than seven years of war".
Gressly reiterated that $80 million was needed "to secure the oil safely in the initial phase", estimating that the full operation would cost a total of $144 million.
Saudi Arabia and its allies launched a devastating war on Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East, in 2015 in a bid to reinstall former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.
The Saudi-led coalition imposed an air, land, and sea blockade in March that year, cutting off all ports of entry and restricting the flow of food, fuel, medicine, and essential goods into Yemen.
The blockade, which prevented commercial access to Yemen and delayed the arrival of humanitarian aid, has over the years spawned what has been described as the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.
The possible oil spill from the tanker also threatens several desalination plants and fisheries that are the source of income for millions of Yemenis.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed directly or indirectly in Yemen's seven-year war, while millions have been displaced in what the UN calls the world's biggest humanitarian crisis.
