The story of the FSO Safer is a complex and alarming tale that encapsulates geopolitical maneuvering, environmental risk, and the surprising ascent of the Houthi movement in Yemen. It is a narrative of a single ship evolving from a potential ecological disaster into a tool of political leverage and, shockingly, a storage facility for sanctioned Russian cargoes.
Richard Meade is joined by Ian Ralby, chief executive of IR Consilium, and Tomer Raanan, a risk analyst at Lloyd’s List, to unravel this intricate story.
The FSO Safer: From Environmental Threat to Political Asset
The FSO Safer was an aging floating storage and offloading (FSO) unit moored off the coast of Yemen. For years, it posed an imminent environmental catastrophe, holding over a million barrels of crude oil with its structure severely deteriorated due to a lack of maintenance during the Yemeni civil war. The fear was that it could explode or rupture, causing an oil spill four times larger than the Exxon Valdez disaster, with devastating humanitarian, economic, and ecological consequences for the Red Sea region.
The international community, spearheaded by the United Nations, successfully raised over $50 million to address this threat. The critical operation involved acquiring a replacement vessel, the VLCC Yemen (formerly Nautica), and transferring the Safer’s oil cargo to it. This complex and dangerous ship-to-ship transfer was largely completed in August 2023, averting the immediate catastrophic spill.
However, the story did not end there. Despite the international effort to resolve the environmental crisis, the FSO Safer itself, and now critically, the VLCC Yemen that holds the salvaged oil, have fallen under the effective control of the Houthis. The astonishing part of this narrative is that the international community effectively paid a group, designated as terrorists by the US government, to facilitate the transfer, and now that very ship (Yemen) is reportedly being used to store sanctioned Russian cargoes. Lloyd’s List has tracked multiple ship-to-ship transfers of Russian-origin gasoil and other cargoes onto the VLCC Yemen since its acquisition by the UN.
The Alarming Rise of the Houthis
The Safer saga is intertwined with the rapid and unexpected militarization of the Houthi movement. Emerging from Yemen in the 1990s as an Islamist political organization, the Houthis barely registered on regional risk assessments just a few years ago. However, they have transformed into a powerful military force, now seemingly able to defy the combined naval protection capabilities of Western powers.
This transformation is evident in their ongoing attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea, which began in October 2023 in response to the Gaza conflict. The Houthis have demonstrated sophisticated capabilities, utilizing drones, ballistic missiles, and anti-ship missiles, many of which are believed to be supplied or technologically assisted by Iran. Despite retaliatory strikes from Western navies, the Houthis have continued their operations, significantly disrupting global trade routes and impacting shipping economics.
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Source: Lloyd’s List
