The ship-to-ship transfer of the oil from the FSO Safer to the replacement oil tanker Yemen (formerly known as Nautica) began last week.
It was an important milestone in this United Nations-coordinated operation to avert a potential massive environmental and humanitarian disaster off the coast of Yemen.
Boskalis reports that the oil transfer is progressing well and will take two to three weeks.
Hydraulic pumps have been lowered into each tank of the FSO Safer. During the transfer operation, inert gas is supplied to keep the tank atmosphere at safe levels during the operation. Once all the pumpable oil has been removed from the Safer, a layer of thick oil will remain on the bottom of the tanks. This layer will be removed by a mobile spray tank cleaning machine, which will clean the inside of the tanks in an operation that is expected to take two to three weeks.
There is an estimated 1.14 million barrels of crude oil on the decaying FSO Safer.
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