RIYADH — Saudi Arabia welcomed on Friday the UN announcement of completing the removal of crude oil from the decaying FSO Safar supertanker off Yemen's Red Sea coast.

In a press statement, the Saudi Foreign Ministry lauded the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and the UN team's efforts to reach this end.

It thanked donor countries which donated for the mission, noting that the Kingdom of Saudi was one of the leading donors.

"A remarkable global coalition came together under the UN umbrella to prevent the worst-case scenario of a catastrophic oil spill in the Red Sea," The UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen David Gressly said.

The Saudi Ministry spoke highly about the Yemeni government's efforts to facilitate to the UN team work.

Earlier, the United Nations announced successfully completing the transfer of oil from the FSO Safer supertanker off Yemen's Red Sea coast.

The Safer has been at risk of breaking up or exploding for years. A major spill from the vessel would have resulted in an environmental and humanitarian catastrophe.

The cargo of oil aboard the FSO Safer has been pumped onto the replacement vessel MOST Yemen (formerly Nautica) in a ship-to-ship transfer that began on 25 July, following preparations on site for the operation that began in May by leading marine salvage company SMIT, a subsidiary of Boskalis. The UN Development Programme (UNDP), which contracted SMIT, is implementing the operation.

As much of the 1.14 million barrels has been extracted as possible. However, less than 2 percent of the original oil cargo remains mixed in with sediment that will be removed during the final cleaning of the Safer. — SG