F.S.O. Safer: The UN starts to fundraise
From a pledging round for governments to crowdfunding the public
So how much money does the UN need to raise again?
With a Plan now in place, what about its costs?
According to the UN, the total budget for the whole operation comes to US$144 million and can be broken down as follows.
Phase One: US$79.6 million
US$35 million - this covers the salvage operation (inspecting and preparing the Safer, then getting the oil off)
US $44.6 million - the rest of this phase needs funds for the lease of a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) for 18 months and associated insurance, maintenance and crew (this represents the time it is estimated to secure the delivery of the permanent vessel), clean-up to a standard for salvage, a contingency fund, and other activities such as due diligence, staffing, operational and management costs
Phase Two: US$64.46 million
US$20 million - purchase of a VLCC for conversion
US$35 million - the conversion of the VLCC into an F.S.O. (Floating Storage and Offloading unit)
US$39.46 million - costs to do with the purchase and installation of a riser and mooring system (for positioning and stability), plus towing fees and management costs
US$(20) million - scrap value of the Safer to partly offset the above costs
And if you really like budgets and numbers, plus are interested in a breakout of timelines (for context this was published in April 2022), here is an extract from the UN Development Programme’s “FSO Safer: Operational Plan”:
Existing funds: US$7 million
Prior to the announced pledging round, the UN already had US$7 million set aside for the operation. A start, at least.
The UN Pledging Round in May 2022: US$33 million
On 11 May, a UN pledging round - seeking commitments from nation states that they will contribute money towards the UN Plan - was held jointly by The Netherlands and the UN in The Hague. It raised around US$33 million, with main contributions as follows:
US$8.4 million - Germany
US$8 million - The Netherlands
US$5 million - UK
Remaining US$11.6 million - EU, Finland, France, Luxembourg, Norway, Qatar, Sweden and Switzerland.
More Pledges after the initial round: US$23.6 million
Another push went around afterwards and it was announced in June that Saudi Arabia and the United States had contributed US$10 million each.
The UK added another US$2.4 million in July.
The following month, the first private sector entity pledged funds and Yemen’s largest private company: US$1.2 million from The HSA Group - Yemen.
The UN launches a crowdfunding campaign: US$0.142 million
All of the above pledges sees the fund’s balance close to $US64 million (as at 28 August 2022), or $US16 million short of the required target.
Sensing that all of the required money was just not all going to come from its initial pledging efforts, David Gressly, the UN’s Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen, announced on 13 June that the UN was going to the public to try and raise the funds: a target of $US5 million.
The last reported total funds raised I have seen is a mere $US 142,000. There are plans to reportedly relaunch the campaign. If you want to donate now, you can do so here: https://www.un.org/en/StopRedSeaSpill
Another depressing statistic, of the US$64 million pledged, only around US$9-10 million has actually been received. It is still a long road ahead it seems.
(In a later post I will look into why the pledging campaign has generally struggled to raise funds.)
Next time: I will recap the potential disastrous impacts if the F.S.O. Safer operation keeps on being delayed and something happens causing it to leak its oil cargo into the Red Sea.