The Head of Sana’a Committee on the Implementation of the Maintenance Agreement for the Safer oil tanker ship, Zaid Al-Washli, has on Friday revealed an agreement with the United Nations to find an equivalent ship to unload the crude oil in the Safer reservoir.
Al-Washli stressed that the United Nations has committed to making an alternative tank capable of moving the petroleum, indicating that Sana’a deals seriously with the Safer file, and separates it from the political and military situation as a humanitarian file.
The Head of the committee said that he hopes that there will be seriousness in the Safer file, in order to avoid any catastrophe, holding the Saudi coalition countries and the United Nations fully responsible, according to his statement to Al-Masirah TV channel.
Al-Washli indicated that Sana’a is doing its best to facilitate the mission of the United Nations, and said the UN should move seriously.
The statement comes after the United Nations announced Thursday that it will begin the process of unloading crude oil from the floating reservoir Safer off the coast of Hodeidah province in early 2023.
The Resident Representative and Humanitarian Coordinator of the United Nations in Yemen, David Gresley, stated that the field work to unload the oil from the Safer tanker would begin in the first quarter of 2023 and would take four months, according to what is prepared in the United Nations plan, costing more than $100 million.
He stated that the United Nations plan, in its first emergency phase, aims to transfer 1.1 million barrels of crude oil from the oil storage vessel, which was made 45 years ago, to another safe ship temporarily.
The Safer oil tanker has been in a state of severe disrepair and neglect since the beginning of the Saudi invasion of Yemen in 2015, caused by the UN’s failure to address the matter and by the Saudi blockade making it impossible for Yemen to conduct necessary repair and upkeep works.
