FSO Safer: Safe again from oil spill risk
FSO Safer was constructed in 1976 as a ULCC under the name Esso Japan. It was converted a decade later into a floating storage and offloading (FSO) facility for crude oil and renamed after its new owner, the Safer Exploration & Production Operation Company (SEPOC) – Yemen’s national oil company, which in turn is named after the location of the country’s first crude oil reserve discovery outside Marib at Safar (also spelt “Safer”). Unfortunately, after years of neglect, FSO Safer no longer lived up to the alternative interpretation of its name.