James Fisher Fendercare Provides Solution to Euronav’s Vessel

[By: James Fisher Fendercare]

• JF Fendercare’s highly experienced personnel responded quickly to prepare the Yokohama fenders and hoses.
• JF Fendercare is the largest operator and supplier of genuine Yokohama fenders worldwide and boasts an exemplary safety record, making them the ideal candidate to provide a fendering solution to this complex and delicate operation.

As part of an emergency mission to transfer oil from the decaying floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel, Safer, James Fisher Fendercare (JF Fendercare) provided a fendering and hoses solution to Euronav, the world’s largest international shipping enterprise, delivering a rapid response in support of a United Nations (UN) operation to avert a significant humanitarian and environmental threat.

JF Fendercare’s highly experienced personnel responded quickly to prepare the original Yokohama fenders and hoses for delivery to Euronav. With an exemplary safety record, seamless service and in-depth knowledge of the marine environment, JF Fendercare has unrivalled experience in global STS operations which made them the ideal candidate to provide a fendering solution to this complex and delicate operation.

To assist the transfer of 1.14 million barrels of light crude oil from the FSO Safer, which is located approximately 4.8 nautical miles off the coast of Yemen, to the Nautica, Euronav will employ JF Fendercare’s original Yokohama pneumatic fenders with their aircraft tyre nets and floating hoses to ensure the operation runs smoothly and safely.

In partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Euronav has provided its very large crude carrier (VLCC), Nautica, for the operation. The oil stored on FSO Safer will be transferred to a new storage arrangement onboard Nautica and the decaying tanker towed to a green scrapping yard.

Geert Goossens, project manager at Euronav, says: “We had a very positive experience working with JF Fendercare. They not only delivered the equipment on time, but the technical support provided by their team was excellent and was very much appreciated.”

Doug Conway, APAC regional director for JF Fendercare, says: “JF Fendercare is delighted to have been able to support Euronav and UNDP with this critical mission and wishes them every success with the FSO Safer salvage operation. This project was a global effort from the JF Fendercare team to ensure the fenders and hoses were delivered safely on time and were ready for use.

“Being able to draw on our global inventory strategically located around the world, we were able to support Euronav in a very short time period and deliver the fenders and hoses in Singapore while the vessel was passing through on her way to Yemen.”

Having been moored in the Red Sea since 2015 and its operations suspended due to the war in Yemen, the FSO Safer’s structural integrity has deteriorated significantly. Initially built as a super tanker in 1976 before being converted into a floating storage and offloading facility a decade later, the vessel has experienced no maintenance in seven years. As a result, the vessel poses a significant risk to marine life and the livelihoods of an estimated 200,000 people on Yemen’s coast. Moreover, pollution in the air as a result of a spill would affect millions of people, and the additional impact on the shipping of goods and the desalination of seawater would have both local and global ramifications.

With clean-up costs being estimated at USD $20 billion and disruptions to shipping through the Bab al-Mandab strait to the Suez Canal likely to cost billions more in global trade losses every day, the UNDP has now initiated the emergency phase of a project to secure the situation and prevent a humanitarian and environmental catastrophe.

This important initiative would not be achievable without the commitment and dedication of the many stakeholders involved, all of whom are playing an essential part in stopping the spill, and JF Fendercare is proud to support Euronav’s critical role in the transfer.

JF Fendercare is the largest operator of genuine Yokohama fenders worldwide and is renowned for providing cost-effective solutions for the commercial, offshore, offshore marine, renewables and naval industries.

For more information see www.fendercare.com and www.james-fisher.com.