FSO Safer: A replacement vessel is found
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FSO Safer: A replacement vessel is found
After delays in finding a VLCC to take on the oil, a vessel is purchased.
As noted in mid-January of this year, the UN provided an update to the media to the effect that, due to the invasion of Ukraine nearly a year before and the associated price shock to lease or even purchase a tanker, it was proving much harder to get hold of a suitable VLCC to take on the oil from the Safer.
In response, Richard Meade, editor of the venerable shipping industry journal Lloyds List, published an open appeal on 27 January for any shipowners to come forward and assist with the procurement of a suitable VLCC to take on the oil, whether at below cost or with the provision of funds:
Any owner even considering joining the effort needs to know upfront that they are entering an unprecedented and difficult situation. But extraordinary is what the shipping industry is routinely able to deliver. If you feel able to step forward, we will happily furnish the introductions.
At the end of February he had some news:
And that news was that a suitable vessel had been found. On 9 March the UN announced that the UNDP would be purchasing an unnamed VLCC from the Belgian tanker company Euronav at a reported $US55 million, US$20 million more than was originally budgeted. Further:
The VLCC was in dry dock in China for regular maintenance and some required modifications, and expected to arrive in Ras Isa in early May.
As of 7 March, $US95 million had been pledged and US$75 million received in cash.
The revised Emergency Phase budget was now a total of US$129 million after the purchase of the vessel to store the oil, driven by the higher cost of tankers; it was also originally intended to be leased.
Therefore, the UN was now $US34 million short of their funding target and needed that to be dramatically closed to allow the operation to commence in the second quarter of 2023.
To partly assist, the crowdfunding campaign was officially relaunched, with a target of $US500,000 this time around.
Euronav confirmed the next day the purchase of a “suitable vessel” and outlined their involvement in the operation:
They would operate the vessel during the oil transfer and for “several months” afterwards as well.
In addition, they would also provide “dedicated support from Euronav for at least nine months”.
In the weeks after the announcement there was some speculation online about which exact existing tanker had been purchased by the UNDP:
After excluding all VLCC’s not situated near China (as reports indicated it would be in dry dock there), on 13 March Insurance Marine News listed out all of the available Euronav vessels:
Vessels in China include the 2016-built, Belgium-flagged Aegean (IMO 9732553), the 2016-built Liberia-flagged Desirade (IMO 9723095), 2015-built, France-flagged Dia (IMO 9723071), 2021-built, Belgium-flagged Diodorus (IMO 9877779), 2016-built, France-flagged Donoussa (IMO 9723083), 2017-built, Liberia-flagged Hatteras (IMO 9730098), and finally, the 2008-built, Liberia-flagged Nautica (IMO 9323948), which is by some stretch the oldest of the Euronav vessels in the region.
Ahmed Kulaib, SEPOC’s General Manager in 2014 when the Houthis took over the region, looked up ship tracking data and posted on Twitter on 20 March that the most likely vessel was the Nautica. In his view, having a tanker 15 years old reduced its chances of being sold as a going vessel later, even if it could withstand the harsh environs at Ras Isa; for example, harbours in Abu Dhabi and India only allowed entry of tankers with a maximum age of 20 and 25 years, respectively; in addition, an older vessel such as this could deteriorate and potentially become a new Safer in the future.
On 5 April, Achim Steiner, the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, announced that the previously unnamed Nautica tanker was close to departing for the Red Sea in preparation for the operation to transfer the oil from the Safer. So what do we know about it?
It is 15 year’s old, built in China, with 307,000 DWT and 306 metres in length.
Beginning service in 2008 as the “Maersk Nautica”, it was acquired by Euronav in 2014 and is currently registered in Liberia.
In dry dock in Zhoushan, China since early March 2023, it has undergone regular maintenance and modifications in anticipation for the Safer operation.
A day later on 6 April, the Nautica set sail from Zhoushan on its way to Yemen, with its first scheduled stop in Singapore on 15 April. However, the US$34 million funding gap still existed.