The Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Liesje Schreinemacher, announced the Netherlands' €7.5 million contribution to the project in March 2022, which has now increased to €15 million.
The FSO Safer is a 40-year-old supertanker moored around 8 kilometers off the coast of Yemen with a huge cargo of oil. Due to years of neglect, the vessel is decaying and poses a significant risk to the environment and shipping in the region.
If no action is taken, large quantities of oil could spill into the Red Sea, posing a huge humanitarian risk for a country already suffering food shortages. The UN estimates that a spill would cost $20 billion to clean up and that it would take another 25 years for fish stocks to recover from an ecological catastrophe of this magnitude.
The Dutch salvage company Boskalis/SMIT Salvage has taken on the task of recovering the Safer's cargo of oil and salvaging the vessel. The company is preparing for the operation, which could potentially break apart at any moment, triggering a major environmental disaster.
"Normally, as minister, it's my job to deal with the repercussions of disasters," said Schreinemacher. "But in this instance we have a chance to prevent a disaster. The Safer is a ticking time bomb. We need swift action."