Boskalis to remove oil from FSO Safer in Yemen to avert environmental and humanitarian disaster

Boskalis through its subsidiary SMIT Salvage has reached an agreement with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the oil removal from the FSO Safer moored off Yemen’s Red Sea coast, according to the company's release. This project is a part of the UN-coordinated operation to remove and transfer more than one million barrels of oil from a decaying tanker into a safe modern tanker and the responsible disposal of the Safer.

The project scope for Boskalis consists of a number of phases. The Boskalis multipurpose support vessel Ndeavor has been prepared in the Netherlands and will sail to Djibouti over the coming three weeks. The salvage crew will make the final preparations in Djibouti before departing for the Safer located off the coast of Yemen. The initial onsite phase will focus on a thorough inspection of the vessel, its cargo and creating a safe working environment. 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 green scrapping yard under the responsibility of the UN.

The Safer is a Floating Storage and Offloading (FSO) facility moored approximately 9 kilometers off the Red Sea coast of Yemen and 50 kilometres northeast of the port of Hodeida. Constructed in 1976 as an oil tanker and converted in 1987 to be a floating storage facility, the Safer is single-hulled and is believed to contain an estimated 1.14 million barrels of light crude oil. The FSO has not been maintained since 2015 because of the conflict in Yemen, and it has decayed to the point where there is a risk it could explode or break apart, which would have disastrous environmental and humanitarian effects on the region.

Boskalis is a global services provider operating in the dredging, maritime infrastructure and maritime services sectors. The company provides creative and innovative all-round solutions to infrastructural challenges in the maritime, coastal and delta regions of the world.