The race to stop a Red Sea oil catastrophe
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 17 June 2022
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
One of the many casualties of the war in Yemen is the FSO Safer, a floating storage facility which holds one million barrels of crude oil. No maintenance has been carried out on the vessel for years, and experts believe it’s in danger or exploding or leaking oil in to the Red Sea at any moment.
The UN has previously unsuccessfully tried to resolve the issue, but David Gressly, the Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, thinks the next few weeks could be vital, and is calling on the private sector and individuals to help fund an operation to transfer the oil to a safer vessel.
We hear from Tim Lenderking, US Special Envoy for Yemen, Ghiwa Nakat of Greenpeace Middle East and North Africa and Yemen’s Minister for Water and the Environment Tawfeeq Al Sharjabi. Presenter: Hannah Bewley Producers: Hannah Bewley and Sumaya Bakhsh Image: The FSO Safer from above; Credit: Getty Images
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Here I am. Look at me. You threw me out. But I've gone and made something of myself. |
| 0:05.7 | I'm now a role model to your children. |
| 0:08.6 | Lives Less Ordinary from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:12.2 | What is happening? This is magical. Where have I been all my life? |
| 0:16.8 | Available now. |
| 0:20.4 | Will businesses and the public step in at the last minute to solve a potentially |
| 0:24.7 | catastrophic oil spill off the coast of Yemen? A tanker in the Red Sea is holding a million |
| 0:30.3 | barrels of oil and is at risk of either exploding or disintegrating at any moment, leaking a |
| 0:36.1 | cargo which could devastate the region. |
| 0:38.7 | We see it like a ticking time bomb. We see a tremendous imminent risk that could happen at any |
| 0:45.9 | time now, either a leak or an explosion. Solutions to the problem of the FSO's Saffa have |
| 0:53.1 | been floated before, but have been thwarted by the conflict in Yemen. |
| 0:57.3 | Now, the UN says the next few weeks are decisive for its plan to transfer the oil to a temporary safer tanker, |
| 1:04.1 | but need to raise $20 million quickly and is looking to the private sector and the public to make up the funds. |
| 1:12.0 | In addition to the logistical challenge of moving a million barrels of oil from a decaying vessel, |
| 1:17.7 | there's a political tightrope to walk too, with Houthi forces occupying the nearby port city of Hedada. |
| 1:25.0 | And time is ticking. A two-month ceasefire is in place in Yemen, and the work needs to |
| 1:30.3 | start in June so it can be completed before weather conditions deteriorate in October. |
| 1:35.7 | Do the math, and we can see that very clearly the time to act is now. |
| 1:45.4 | One of America's most magnificent waterways is blackened and befouled tonight by the biggest |
| 1:50.7 | oil spill in American history. |
| 1:52.5 | 240,000 barrels, 11 million gallons of Alaskan crude oil escaped from the huge vessel. |
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