Summary
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A derelict oil tanker off the coast of Yemen was in danger of leaking more than a million barrels of crude oil into the Red Sea.
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The tanker, FSO Safer, was 47 years old and had serious mechanical and structural risks.
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A UN diplomat, David Gressly, orchestrated a last-ditch cleanup operation to remove the oil from the tanker.
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Gressly launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise the $144 million needed for the operation.
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The campaign was successful, and the oil was removed from the tanker in August 2023.
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Gressly is now considering establishing contingency plans for future situations of this sort.
More Details
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The FSO Safer was abandoned off the coast of Yemen in 2015 when war broke out in the country.
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The oil on the tanker belongs to the Yemeni state, but who represents that country is not yet settled.
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The crowdfunding campaign was successful because it was supported by people from all over the world, including Yemeni businessmen, schoolchildren in the United States, and the UN emergency humanitarian fund.
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Gressly is now considering establishing contingency plans for future situations of this sort, such as setting up a fund to cover the cost of emergency cleanups.
This is good, but where is the company that left this crumbling wreck? Who was responsible for it when it was abandoned? Yes, the oil belongs to a country with a government in flux, but surely the crew where part of a corporation or business of some sort.
