The race to prevent an environmental disaster in the Red Sea
Lesson summary
Hi everyone, I’m Jeff and this is Plain English lesson number 607. Here at Plain English, we use stories to help you upgrade your English. By listening here, you’ll improve your vocabulary and you’ll learn to express your best ideas in English.
On Monday, you heard about the FSO Safer . If you missed that one, here’s a recap: The Safer is an oil storage vessel moored a few miles off the coast of Yemen. Yemen is in the middle of a civil war, and both sides in the war are claiming ownership of the oil. And so for years, the Safer and 1.1 million barrels of oil, sat in the Red Sea.
The ship was rusting and deteriorating, at risk of sinking, exploding, or just collapsing. If the oil spilled into the sea, it would be the worst oil spill in world history, wiping out fish stocks for a generation, threatening world trade, and poisoning the drinking supply for Saudi Arabia—among other unpleasant consequences.
On today’s lesson, I’ll tell you about the incredible—and ultimately successful—effort to pump the oil off the Safer and avert disaster. I’ll also show you how to use the English expression “go back on” and we have a song of the week. Let’s do this.
Race to prevent massive oil spill in Red Sea
The United Nations was long aware of the problems with the FSO Safer. And the broad solution was well-known. Someone had to take a proper oil tanker out there, connect it to the Safer, transfer the oil into a new tanker, and then scrap the Safer. However, it was not as easy as it sounds. There were two main problems: money (obviously) and diplomacy. Let’s start with diplomacy.
Yemen is a volatile place. It’s the poorest country in the Arabian Peninsula and the rule of law is weak. The country has been carved up into territories controlled by rival governments and smaller militias. Specifically , a group of rebels called the Houthis have taken control of large parts of Yemen, including the coastline close to where the Safer is moored. The military conflict—the fighting—has calmed down since the bloody early years of the civil war. The U.N. mediated a truce between the Houthi rebels and the internationally-recognized government about a year ago—but it’s an uneasy truce. More fighting could break out at any time.
The Safer wasn’t included in the negotiated truce from 2022, but that truce at least stopped the fighting and got the parties talking. With the truce as the starting point, and after long and hard negotiations, the U.N. got the Houthis to agree to allow an international team to transfer the oil off the Safer.
Listen closely: the Houthis agreed to allow an international team to transfer the oil off the Safer. They didn’t agree to give up the oil. They only agreed to let a team move the oil.
That, however, was all the U.N. needed to move onto the second challenge: money. It would cost over $143 million just to transfer the oil onto a new ship and then into a storage facility. The U.N. was able to raise most of the money in contributions from over 20 countries and from private individuals.
With most of the money secured, the rescue mission could finally get off the ground . The U.N. bought a special oil tanker from China just for this job. It sent inspection crews to the Safer to evaluate the structure, tanks, pipes, and cargo.
A special portable inert gas system was developed to reduce the risk of an explosion. Protective nets were installed to catch any oil that might leak during the process. And finally, hydraulic pumps were lowered into each of the Safer’s 34 tanks.
Finally, on July 25 of this year, the transfer began. About two weeks later, ninety-eight percent of the oil had been pumped onto the new storage vessel. The oil that remained would be pressure-washed out of the chambers on the Safer.
This was a diplomatic and environmental triumph years in the making. Had the oil from the Safer spilled into the Red Sea, it would have been an unspeakable tragedy. The biggest problem has been solved. But the job is still not done.
First, the oil. It’s still contested. My first thought was: listen, the world coughed up $143 million to save $80 million of oil. The U.N. should just sell the oil and use the proceeds for humanitarian aid in Yemen. But it’s not that easy: remember that the U.N. negotiated a delicate agreement to save the Safer. They left the ownership of the oil for future negotiations.
That means this oil, which the world paid so much to save, this same oil could later go to pay for weapons in one side of Yemen’s civil war. That would be a tragedy. But to save the oil in the first place , the U.N. had to make a commitment, and it can’t go back on those commitments now.
In the meantime , the oil will be moved to a permanent storage facility until its rightful owner can be determined. But even that has its challenges: the new oil tanker has to be connected to a pipeline that will take the oil to a secure location.
Second: what to do with the rusted carcass of the Safer? Well that, at least, belongs to the U.N. They’ll tow the Safer away, have it cleaned, and then take it to a scrapyard to be salvaged. The proceeds of the salvage effort will offset some of the costs of the rescue.
Believe it or not , this could be the foundation for a more lasting peace in Yemen. Iran, which backs the rebels, Saudi Arabia, which backs the old government, and the United Nations were all talking and achieving progress on this issue of importance. Saudi Arabia and Iran are talking again. This could be an opening to find some middle ground and lasting peace.
Sometimes I think all hope is lost for the world. Not really, but it does seem like that sometimes. And then there are just flashes of brilliance, when highly skilled people come together to do something that is just good. Good for the world, highly complicated, technical.
I first read an article about this probably two years ago. And I just could not see how this would resolve itself.
You know, I think about you guys—all of you in the audience—all week long, even on days when we’re not together in an episode. And so often I think I’d love to share something with you, but I don’t really have a place to do that.
That could be a cartoon, a picture, a link, a book recommendation, a tip, a strategy, a question—whatever, lots of stuff.
But now we’re putting all of that that into the e-mails that we send out with each lesson, every Monday and Thursday. These e-mails are jam-packed with value, fun, entertainment, and (a little) extra learning. They’re already going out.
If you’re not getting them, just go to PlainEnglish.com/mail – you’ll be signed up right away. This is a great way to get some extra practice, engage a little more with English. PlainEnglish.com/mail .
JR’s song of the week
Every week, JR picks an English song for us to listen to. This week he has selected “Set Fire to the Third Bar” by Snow Patrol. An electric heater is sometimes called a “three bar fire” for its design. And if you turn the heater on high, you’d light all three of the bars in the space heater. Anyway, the writer remembers being a kid, staying with his aunt, and if he was really well-behaved, and if it was really cold, she would put all three bars on the electric heater.
So the song is about a long-distance relationship. The couple travels a long way to be together and, in the cold, they’re finally together and they light a three-bar electric fire, or the space heater on high.
So thanks JR for that song of the week. Next up: the English expression, “go back on.”
Great stories make learning English fun
