Time to Move Beyond Yemen’s SAFER Oil Tanker Blame Game

Jun 1, 2020 | Doug Weir
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The SAFER Floating Storage and Offloading (FSO) terminal is a forty-year-old single hulled supertanker moored 7km off the coast of Yemen. Since the Houthis took control of the area in 2015, it has not been inspected or maintained. It is thought to contain at least 1.14m barrels of oil and corrosion and lack of maintenance are creating the conditions for an environmental disaster.

Since we first reported on the threat that the SAFER FSO poses back in April 2018, the fate of the vessel has been a bargaining chip in the stalled peace negotiations, and has been raised with depressing frequency at meetings of the UN Security Council (UNSC). In spite of several false dawns, little progress appears to have been made on the vital first step towards addressing the risks the vessel poses – the Houthis granting access to a UN inspection team to determine its current condition.

In February, the UNSC included a reference to the SAFER FSO in a resolution on Yemen for the first time. The text emphasised ‘the environmental risks and the need, without delay, for access of UN officials to inspect and maintain the Safer oil tanker, which is located in the Houthi-controlled North of Yemen.’ As it is comparatively unusual for specific environmental threats to be addressed in UNSC resolutions, this gives some indication of the attention that council members are now paying to the problem.