UN-led operation to remove oil from supertanker in Red Sea

UN-led operation is underway to pump oil from a decaying supertanker. 223,000 barrels of oil had been safely removed from the FSO Safer oil tanker and transferred to the "Yemen". The project to prevent a massive oil spill from the supertanker off Yemen's coast began early morning Tuesday. It aims to remove more than 1 million barrels of oil from the decaying vessel.

A major spill from the vessel would result in an environmental and humanitarian catastrophe. The oil aboard the Safer is being pumped into the replacement vessel Yemen in a ship-to-ship transfer process. The UN Development Programme (UNDP), which contracted leading marine salvage company SMIT, is implementing the operation to remove the oil.