The aging supertanker FSO Safer was moored approximately 4.8 nautical miles off the coast of Yemen where conflict had meant the suspension of maintenance operations on the ship in 2015. Without a functioning system to pump inert gas into its tanks, the vessel could have leaked or exploded at any time.
The UN-led mission to insure the non-standard Ship-to-Ship (STS) transfer of the oil to another vessel was only made possible through a massive collaborative effort. Howden together with the London Market worked against the clock to prevent an enormous environmental disaster with serious humanitarian and economic consequences, in the face of the considerable risks it presented. By de-risking the investment required and mitigating the risks involved in this complex and delicate operation, the insurance market demonstrated what a key role it had to play in preventing one of the largest, man-made disasters the world would ever have faced.
The successful ship-to-ship transfer of oil from the FSO Safer to a replacement tanker was completed on 11 August 2023 and marked the end of a complex salvage operation.
