More than a million tons of oil on an overheet tanker off shores of Yemen

Environmentalists have long been unsuccessfully warn about the high risk of environmental disasters due to the fact that on board the FSO Safer tanker abandoned by 6 km from the Yemen coast is at least 1.1 million barrels of oil, haaaretz reports.

It is noted that the tanker stands and rust since 2017, while no one watches the process of corrosion of the vessel body, nor for the extinguishing gases system.

It is reported that the FSO Safer twqueaks more oil than on the victim in 1989 on Alaska is one of the largest vessels of the ship Exxon Valdez.

According to the results of the study, which were published in the journal Nature Sustainability, in the case of large-scale oil spill, Saudi Arabia, Eritrea and Djibouti will suffer.

The consequence of the spill of fuel will be the termination of the work of desalination plants, as a result of which at least 8 million people will lose access to water. From 60 to 90% of all fisheries in the region will be destroyed. Also, in the opinion of experts, several ports will be forced to close, which will damage the transportation of oil through the Bab el-Mandant Strait.

The situation is complicated and the fact that the ship is problematic to get to the ship, since it is located on the territory controlled by the Yemen’s rebels, from which the UN has not been able to achieve permission for their inspectors for a long time to visit the abandoned tanker.