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UN / SAFER OIL TANKER PRESSER
STORY: UN / SAFER OIL TANKER PRESSER
TRT: 02:42
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 09 MARCH 2023, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior un headquarters
09 MARCH 2023, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, press room dais
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, Administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP):
“I am very pleased today that the United Nations Development Programme can announce that it has entered into an agreement with Euronav to purchase a Very Large Crude Carrier – or a VLCC –, as part of the UN-coordinated operation to remove more than what is estimated a million barrels of oil from the decaying tanker known to many of you as the FSO Safer of Yemen's Red Sea coast.”
4. Wide shot, journalists in the briefing room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, Administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP):
“The vessel is expected to sail within the next month and we hope if all things go according to plan, that the operation of the ship to ship transfer would actually commence in early May. This would obviously be a major breakthrough, after so many have worked so hard for so long, to try and bring the international community together on this emergency operation.”
6. Close up, journalist asking question
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Achim Steiner, Administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP):
“The purchase of this vessel, as you can imagine, is now a major step forward in our efforts to safely remove the oil from the DSO Safer and avoid the risk of an environmental humanitarian disaster on a massive scale.”
8. Wide shot, briefing room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) David Gressly, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen:
“Today, I can tell you, across the across the country, a great deal of satisfaction that finally a solution is in sight.”
10. Close up, journalist asking question
11. SOUNDBITE (English) David Gressly, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen:
“We'd like to highlight the consequences of inaction. $20 billion cleanup is just the start of that. It would affect 200,000 communities with their livelihoods wiped out. We would see all communities exposed to the pollution, enclose the port of Hodeidah, certainly, and Saleef, which is essential to bring food and fuel and lifesaving supplies into Yemen, providing support to over 17 million people.”
12. Close up, journalist asking question
13. SOUNDBITE (English) David Gressly, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen:
“The desalination plants would close, cutting off water sources for millions of people. It could touch the African coast, particularly Eritrea, Somalia, and Djibouti. It could affect shipping through Bab al-Mandab, exiting the Red Sea, and would cause damage in pristine environmental waters that probably will not recover for at least 25 years. This we cannot allow it to happen. But we have every means to go forward with this.”
14. Wide shot, briefing room
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) signed an agreement to secure the purchase of a large vessel as part of the UN-coordinated operation to remove more than a million barrels of oil from a decaying tanker off Yemen’s Red Sea coast, the agency’s administrator informed.
Speaking to journalists in New York on Thursday (9 Mar), Achim Steiner explained the vessel is a Very Large Crude Carrier – or ‘VLCC’ – and the old tanker threatens a humanitarian and environmental catastrophe.
Steiner informed that “the vessel is expected to sail within the next month” and “if all things go according to plan” the operation of the ship to ship transfer would actually commence in early May.
“This would obviously be a major breakthrough, after so many have worked so hard for so long, to try and bring the international community together on this emergency operation,” said UNDP’s chief.
According to Steiner, the replacement vessel is now in drydock for modifications and regular maintenance before sailing to the FSO Safer, moored about nine kilometers off Yemen’s Ras Isa peninsula.
For UNDP’s administrator, the purchase of this vessel is “a major step forward” in the efforts to safely remove the oil from the DSO Safer and avoid the risk of an environmental humanitarian disaster on a massive scale.
Also briefing journalists, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, David Gressly, said that “across the across the country, [there is] a great deal of satisfaction that finally a solution is in sight.”
The FSO Safer has not been maintained since 2015 because of the conflict in Yemen. It has decayed to the point where there is an imminent risk it could explode or break apart, which would have disastrous effects on the region.
Highlighting the consequences of inaction, Gressly said “$20 billion cleanup is just the start of that. It would affect 200,000 communities with their livelihoods wiped out. We would see all communities exposed to the pollution, enclose the port of Hodeidah, certainly, and Saleef, which is essential to bring food and fuel and lifesaving supplies into Yemen, providing support to over 17 million people.”
The Humanitarian Coordinator also said that “the desalination plants would close, cutting off water sources for millions of people” and the spill “could touch the African coast, particularly Eritrea, Somalia, and Djibouti” and “affect shipping through Bab al-Mandab, exiting the Red Sea, and would cause damage in pristine environmental waters that probably will not recover for at least 25 years.”
Gressly concluded, “This we cannot allow it to happen. But we have every means to go forward with this.”
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