"The supertanker, with more than a million barrels of oil, has been deteriorating since 2015, leading to fears of a catastrophic spill."

"The United Nations has started pumping oil off a decaying vessel moored off Yemen’s Red Sea coast, averting a potential spill and environmental disaster, UN officials have said.

The FSO Safer – a floating storage and offloading (FSO) tanker holding more than 1.14 million barrels of oil – has been at risk of breaking up or exploding for years due to its corrosion and a lack of maintenance since a Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen’s war in 2015.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who control the area of Yemen’s coast where the Safer is moored, had previously prevented any salvage operation from taking place, but finally agreed in March to allow for the oil to be offloaded."

Aljazeera had the story July 25, 2023. [2]