Right before @planetlabs further improved its SkySat quality this week, we were amazed to finally see a hi-res shot of the abandoned 350m x 70m FPSO tanker SAFER off the coast of Yemen. She's 44y old and still contains oil aboard, but EXTREMELY dangerous due to gas buildup. #OOTT

The bigger threat however, is that her hull has most likely rusted quite a lot over the years. The vessel last pinged over AIS on 2016-06-22, which is almost 4 years now. That's a long enough time for something to go wrong, especially an oil spill of over 1 million barrels.

Further reading in this article by @chrisbaraniuk of @openDemocracy: Yemen’s deadly ghost ship

An abandoned oil tanker with over a million barrels of oil on board is an environmental catastrophe waiting to happen. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/yemens-deadly-ghost-ship/

We kindly encourage folks to retweet our original tweet and tag various administrations/authorities and news organizations in order to raise awareness about this ticking time-bomb.

If for no better reason: because it's 2020.

Thank you,
/TT

A good reminder: This Ultra Large Crude Carrier vessels has a single hull, and not a double hull. Yes, she's that old. That hull can't be doing too well after 44 years. That's more than twice the average lifespan of such tankers.

https://www.marineinsight.com/naval-architecture/single-hull-vs-double-hull-tankers/

Great follow-up by @mokhbersahafi of @AP about the abandoned 44 year old supertanker SAFER off the Red Sea coast of Yemen. We're very happy to see more media coverage on this extremely volatile vessel, laden with more than 1 million barrels of crude oil.

https://apnews.com/e8d9e1a1d674a2d6784a2c53dfe628e2

Some photos from the article. That really doesn't look good.