A view of decaying FSO Safer oil tanker anchored 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of the port of Hudaydah, Yemen on July 15, 2023.
The UN has begun a 19-day operation to extract oil from a 47-year-old decaying supertanker as it seeks to end a race against time to avoid a catastrophic oil spill.
This led to growing concerns about a potential oil spill four times the size of 1989's Exxon Valdez leak, which was the second-largest oil spill in U.S. history.
The oil aboard the tanker began being transferred to a U.N.-owned vessel Yemen, previously known as Nautica, at 10:45 Yemen time Tuesday.
"The @UN has begun a complex operation to transfer 1 million barrels of oil from a decaying tanker off the coast of Yemen.
Persons:
Exxon Valdez, Bab, Antonio Guterres, David Gressly, Ghiwa Nakat
Organizations:
UN, Exxon, Greenpeace MENA
Locations:
Hudaydah, Yemen, Suez, Red