Sanaa, UN sign urgent maintenance agreement for “Safer” oil tanker
An official source in the Supreme Economic Committee announced that an urgent maintenance agreement and a comprehensive evaluation of the “Safer” tankers had been signed with the United Nations.
The source explained that, after technical discussions between the national advisory team for the floating tank “Safer” and the office of the UN envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, along with the team of the United Nations Office for Project Services, an agreement was reached on urgent maintenance and a comprehensive evaluation of the decaying oil tanker.
The source indicated that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a message to the United Nations in this regard, expressing its welcome to the team of experts in charge of the urgent evaluation and maintenance of the floating tanker.
The source said, “The national side is currently waiting for a letter from the United Nations to inform the date of the arrival of the team of experts after they were granted the necessary visas to enter Yemen, and to start implementing the work assigned to them alongside the national technical team.”
The source pointed out that during technical discussions with the United Nations, the United Nations Office for Project Services team refused to provide a nitrogen generator as a suitable alternative to the inert gas system with the equipment that will be brought in order to carry out the urgent evaluation and maintenance process.
The generator’s job is to pump the inert gas to the oil tanks to prevent any explosions, contrary to the allegations made, which claim that the United Nations and the international community want to avoid an environmental catastrophe in the Red Sea, but the United Nations Project Office team limited the operation to merely conduct maintenance and prevent oil leakage from the floating tanker.
The source added, “Although the UNOPS team refused to provide the nitrogen generator, we welcome the steps that have been achieved, out of our keenness to prevent an environmental catastrophe in the Red Sea, and we hope that the United Nations will speed up the implementation of the steps agreed upon, and send the team of experts to carry out its duties expeditiously.”