Moored in the Red Sea, around 4.8 nautical miles off the coast of Yemen, the FSO Safer has made headlines around the world for a few years – for all the wrong reasons. The floating oil storage and offloading vessel holds over 1.14 million barrels of crude oil which makes it one of the world’s largest oil tankers. Built in Japan in 1976, it has been moored in the Red Sea and has been left exposed to humidity and corrosion with little or no maintenance since Yemen’s civil war started in 2015. It is not insured and has been left without maintenance for the last seven years.

On board the rusting tanker is a small crew working desperately to keep the tanker afloat and secure and they managed, so far, to prevent a major catastrophe. Despite their efforts however, leaks have happened in the past. The most serious one occurred in May 2020 when seawater entered the engine room. It took five days to stop the leak.

Time reported that experts suggest that FSO Safer might become the “biggest man-made oil-related disaster ever recorded” if action isn’t taken swiftly. As the inert gas systems, pumps and fire-fighting equipment are not functioning, the tanker could cause a major oil leak or an explosion that could have catastrophic impacts.

If all the oil on board was to spill, the disaster would be four times bigger than the Exxon Valdez oil spill. It would cause widespread environmental damage to the fragile marine environments of the Red Sea, exacerbating the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Yemen and affecting neighbouring countries. Such a spill would force the closure of the local port of Hodeidah through which 68% of the aid and supplies flow. It could impact food supplies for 8.4 million people, drinking water for 10 million people and the livelihoods and health of 1.7 million fishermen and coastal communities.