huge bomb ship in the Yemen

[TimW]

Damn he's good.

Except that he hasn't bothered to find out what happens next, and is puzzled that the UN bought a tanker instead of just leasing one. (Answer: the new ship, full of oil, sits where the old one was! The old one gets scrapped.)

[Martin_B]

Damn he's good.

Except that he hasn't bothered to find out what happens next, and is puzzled that the UN bought a tanker instead of just leasing one. (Answer: the new ship, full of oil, sits where the old one was! The old one gets scrapped.)

No. The UN-owned ship (the Yemen) is a tanker, not an FSO. It doesn't have the facilities needed to connect to the mooring tower and take the place of the Safer. The Yemen is going to sail to a port somewhere once the cleaning of the Safer's tanks is completed and it'll off-load the cargo.

Whether the Yemen sails away before the agreement regarding the proceeds of the sale are completed or not is possibly the main sticking point, but if I were the UN I'd aim to sail the Yemen to a port and off-load quickly, get the money into an account, and then let the lawyers take over. The UN itself may have a reasonable claim on the money, in order to recompense them for buying the Yemen in the first place!

What happens to the Safer it a different question. Seeing as it hasn't had any maintenance for nearly 10 years, towing it away includes a non-zero chance of the now unladen ship breaking up. Unladen ships flex more when being impacted by waves and the amount of allowable flex left in the structure would be difficult to determine. The alternative of pumping seawater into the tanks to help the Safer's structure makes the ship heavier to tow, so requiring greater towing loads, which will also affect the Safer's structure. The calculation as to which method of removing the Safer (possibly lashing multiple tugs to the sides of the Safer and closely coordinating the tugs' movements) will be interesting.

[noggins]

.

[TimW]

No. The UN-owned ship (the Yemen) is a tanker, not an FSO. It doesn't have the facilities needed to connect to the mooring tower and take the place of the Safer. The Yemen is going to sail to a port somewhere once the cleaning of the Safer's tanks is completed and it'll off-load the cargo.

Sounds good. Doesn't seem to fit in with what the UN are saying...

... the UN has now raised $105.2 million for the emergency phase of the operation to remove the oil from the FSO Safer. This leaves $23.8 million for the emergency phase unfunded. An additional $19 million is required for the critical second phase, comprising the installation of a catenary anchor leg mooring buoy and the tethering of the replacement vessel to it, as well as the towing of the FSO Safer to a green salvage yard for recycling.

...but if they're going to swing a proper solution then great.

[Martin_B]

No. The UN-owned ship (the Yemen) is a tanker, not an FSO. It doesn't have the facilities needed to connect to the mooring tower and take the place of the Safer. The Yemen is going to sail to a port somewhere once the cleaning of the Safer's tanks is completed and it'll off-load the cargo.

Sounds good. Doesn't seem to fit in with what the UN are saying...

... the UN has now raised $105.2 million for the emergency phase of the operation to remove the oil from the FSO Safer. This leaves $23.8 million for the emergency phase unfunded. An additional $19 million is required for the critical second phase, comprising the installation of a catenary anchor leg mooring buoy and the tethering of the replacement vessel to it, as well as the towing of the FSO Safer to a green salvage yard for recycling.

...but if they're going to swing a proper solution then great.

Well, that's a bit weird. I hadn't heard that the Yemen was going to be converted to being an FSO and left on-station instead of the Safer.

Either way, the installation of the mooring connection isn't something you want to do either: a) at sea, or b) on a tanker containing 1.1 million barrels of oil. So, I assume that the Yemen will sail to a port, off-load the oil, and then get the mooring connection installed before coming back on-station.*

This also suggests that the Yemenis (or possibly the Houthis) want to re-start oil production into the new vessel. Interesting to see who's going to operate the vessel; whether it's controlled by the locals or by a UN-backed crew (it being a UN-owned boat).

* If you look at the two boats, the Safer and the Yemen, there's considerably more equipment on the Safer's deck than the Yemen's. The Yemen will already have the inert gas system, but may need additional modifications to replace the Safer over and above just the mooring connection.