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U.N. agrees to buy $55M crude carrier for removing stranded oil

The stranded supertanker FSO Safer has been moored off the coast of Yemen – toward the end of a pipeline to the oil and gas fields near Marib city – and nearly sank in 2020.

The FSO Safer, moored off Yemen's coast, has badly corroded and poses a major environmental threat.
The stranded supertanker FSO Safer, moored off Yemen's coast, has badly corroded and poses a major environmental threat. (AN/UNDP)

U.N. officials began putting into place their long-term solution to prevent the F.S.O. Safer, a rotting supertanker off Yemen's Red Sea coast, from spilling more than 1 million barrels of oil and causing a major environmental catastrophe.

They've agreed to buy a replacement "Very Large Crude Carrier" for US$55 million as part of an elaborate plan to offload the oil from the rapidly decaying supertanker starting in early May. The U.N. Development Program said it signed a purchase agreement Thursday with Belgium's tanker shipping company Euronav.

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