The vessel, named FSO Safer, has been abandoned in the Red Sea off the western coast of Yemen since March 2015 when Houthi rebels took over the region.

The tanker, moored near the Yemeni port of Ras Isa, contains around 1.1 million barrels of petroleum.

That is four times the amount of oil released in the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill – widely seen as one of the worst man-made natural disasters in history.

The tanker has been stranded at its present spot since 2015, where locals have used the ship as a make-shift barge.

Sitting for years without maintenance, however, the decrepit vessel is now deteriorating rapidly, risking a global environmental calamity of historic dimensions.

The vessel belongs to the country’s state-owned oil firm, the Yemen Oil and Gas Corporation.

Yemen has been crippled by a fractious civil war following the Iran-backed Houthi uprising that swept the pro-Western government into exile in 2015.

A standoff over the Safer and its £64million-worth of oil has meant it has been left to decay – leading to fears it is on the verge of blowing up.

A report for the Atlantic Council think-tank said: “Though a photograph reveals only a ship, known as the Safer, its explosive potential renders it a floating bomb – permanently moored in the Red Sea off Ras Isa.”

Mark Lowcock told the UN security council last week: “If the tanker ruptures or explodes, we could see the coastline polluted all along the Red Sea.

“Depending on the time of year and water currents, the spill could reach from Bab-el-Mandeb to the Suez Canal, and potentially as far as the Strait of Hormuz.”

The Red Sea has a delicate ecosystem that is home to corals and around 600 species of fish – making it vulnerable to pollution.

The Yemen conflict – seen as a proxy war between Iran through the Houthi and Saudi Arabia through the exiled government – has sparked a humanitarian crisis.

Over 14 million Yemenis depend on international aid – more than half the country’s 24 million population.

Source: Read Full Article