China hails efforts in removing crude oil from abandoned tanker off Yemeni coast

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) --China on Wednesday commended the efforts of the United Nations and others involved in offloading crude oil from a tanker that had been abandoned off Yemen's western coast to avert potential environmental hazards.

The Safer tanker was initially constructed as a supertanker in 1976 and later converted to a floating storage and offloading facility (FSO) for oil. Years of civil strife left the tanker unattended, raising concerns about a potential oil spill.

"The offloading of crude oil from FSO Safer has been completed recently, thus averting a potential environmental and humanitarian disaster," Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, told the Security Council briefing on Yemen.

The UN said on Friday that it had finished the removal of around 1 million barrels of oil from the deteriorating tanker.

"China highly commends the UN and other relevant parties on their efforts, and hopes that the funds needed for the subsequent cleanup operation could be secured as soon as possible," Geng said.

Turning to the security situation in the war-torn country, the envoy said that Taiz, Marib and other areas regularly witness sporadic armed conflicts.

"Against this backdrop, all parties to the conflict should remain calm and show restraint, and avoid any factors that might hamper efforts of diplomatic mediation or complicate the political process," Geng said.

"We call on the international community to increase its humanitarian and development input into Yemen and welcome the economic assistance provided by Saudi Arabia and other countries," he said.