Netherlands-based Boskalis, through its subsidiary Smit Salvage, has entered into an agreement with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the oil removal from the floating storage and offloading vessel (FSO) Safer moored off Yemen's Red Sea coast.
Boskalis said the project is a part of the UN-coordinated operation to remove and transfer more than one million barrels of oil from the decaying vessel into a safe, modern tanker and to ensure the responsible disposal of the FSO.
Liesje Schreinemacher, Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, commented that Boskalis' salvage operations can help prevent the potential environmental and humanitarian disaster that would otherwise occur unless the oil on Safer is safely removed.
The project scope for Boskalis consists of a number of phases. The Boskalis multi-purpose support vessel Ndeavor has been prepared in the Netherlands and will sail to Djibouti over the coming three weeks.
The salvage crew will make the final preparations in Djibouti before departing for the FSO located off the coast of Yemen.
The initial on-site phase will focus on a thorough inspection of the vessel, its cargo and creating a safe working environment. Once the FSO and its cargo tanks are declared safe, a UN-purchased very large crude carrier (VLCC) will come alongside at which point the ship-to-ship oil pumping operation can commence.
The tanks of the FSO will subsequently be cleaned and the residual water will also be transferred into the VLCC.
Boskalis expects the entire on-site operation to be completed within two months. Once Safer is declared clean and empty, it will be prepared for towing to a green scrapping yard under the responsibility of the UN.
