Sana'a News: On the 17th, the United Nations handed over an oil tanker to the Yemeni armed forces in order to transfer approximately 1.1 million barrels of crude oil from the oil storage giant vessel "Safir", which is facing serious aging problems. The large oil tanker named "Nautica" was purchased by the United Nations Development Programme in March this year, and arrived in the sea area where "Safire" was located on July 16 after refitting. On the 17th, the United Nations Humanitarian Affairs Coordinator in Yemen, Grace Li, and representatives of the Hussain armed forces attended the handover ceremony on the "Nautica" and renamed the tanker "Yemen". The United Nations Development Programme said last week that the team hired by the United Nations would begin to transfer the crude oil from the Safire to the Yemeni tanker in the near future. The entire operation is expected to last for two weeks. After the transfer of crude oil is completed, the "Yemen" tanker will berth in place. The oil tanker "Safire" is 362 meters long, 70 meters wide, and has a load capacity of more than 400000 tons. It was built by Hitachi Shipbuilding Company in 1976. After refitting in 1987, it was berthed in the Red Sea area north of the Yemeni port of Al Hudaydah the next year to store crude oil, belonging to Yemeni National Petroleum Corporation. The oil tanker has been in an unmanned maintenance state since it was controlled by the Yemeni armed forces in March 2015. The United Nations has repeatedly warned that the "Safire" oil tanker is at risk of oil leakage, explosion, or fire, and if an accident occurs, it will cause environmental and humanitarian disasters. (New News Agency)