Middle East From Disaster Prevention to Oil Trade Hub: How a UN-Purchased Tanker Became a Houthi Asset

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From Disaster Prevention to Oil Trade Hub: How a UN-Purchased Tanker Became a Houthi Asset

 

A supertanker originally purchased by the United Nations to avert an environmental catastrophe off the coast of Yemen is now being used as a floating oil storage facility by the Houthis, with Russian oil products reportedly moving through it — all while the UN continues to cover its operating costs.

 

 

The Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) Yemen was bought by the UN for $55 million to carry out a delicate mission: transfer over a million barrels of crude oil from the decaying FSO Safer, a rusting vessel long moored off Yemen’s Red Sea coast and considered an ecological time bomb. That operation was successfully completed in August 2023. However, since then, the ship's purpose appears to have shifted dramatically.

 

Following the oil transfer, ownership of the VLCC Yemen was handed over to the Yemen state-owned oil company Sepoc. Yet, the UN has continued paying $450,000 per month to keep the tanker crewed and operational. Despite this significant financial involvement, the organization says it has little control over the vessel's activities and no knowledge of the origin or destination of its current cargoes.

 

According to maritime tracking data and port activity logs, the VLCC Yemen has been engaged in ship-to-ship (STS) transfers involving Russian petroleum products. These operations indicate that the Houthis, who control the Red Sea coastline including the area around Ras Isa, have effectively repurposed the ship as a storage hub. In early June 2025, the first recorded cargo appeared to have been lightered from the vessel and moved to the Ras Isa terminal, raising concerns that it is now a node in the broader Russian oil supply chain.

 

UN officials have expressed frustration over the situation, saying they have formally objected to the apparent use of the vessel for commercial oil activity. “We have protested the transfers of cargo to and from the VLCC Yemen,” a UN spokesperson confirmed, adding that the organization has “no knowledge of the origin or destinations of the cargoes.”

 

The incident reflects the unintended consequences of a complex operation that initially won international praise for eliminating the threat of a catastrophic Red Sea oil spill. The FSO Safer, a corroding offshore storage ship left unmaintained during years of civil war, had posed a grave danger to regional ecosystems and shipping lanes. The UN’s initiative to transfer its contents to a modern tanker was hailed as a model for preemptive environmental action. But with the VLCC Yemen now functioning outside of international oversight and linked to politically sensitive oil movements, critics warn that the mission’s legacy may be undermined.

 

“The original purpose of this vessel was to save the Red Sea from a disastrous spill,” said one expert familiar with the project. “Now it’s being used to store and move oil under the control of a faction that’s heavily sanctioned and at the center of a major regional conflict.”

 

Despite handing over the vessel, the UN remains financially and politically entangled with it. Until a long-term solution is reached — either through a new legal framework, transfer of operational responsibility, or removal of the ship from contested waters — the VLCC Yemen will remain a potent symbol of both the success and the limits of international intervention in conflict zones.

 

  Adapted by ASEAN Now from Lloyds List  2025-07-09

 

 

[loong]

Ridiculous!