The Yemeni government has expressed gratitude to Saudi Arabia for its additional 8-million-U.S. dollar assistance in the salvage operations of the Safer tanker abandoned off Yemen's western coast, the official Saudi Press Agency reported Friday.

According to Yemeni Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani, the new aid, along with the previous 10-million-dollar support from Saudi Arabia, will be extended to the ongoing United Nations-led salvage operations of the decaying tanker off the coast of western Hodeidah province.

The UN emergency team on Tuesday started to transfer crude oil from the Safer tanker to a replacement vessel as part of an urgent mission to avert a potential environmental catastrophe of a massive oil spill.

The Safer tanker was originally constructed as a supertanker in 1976 and later converted to a floating storage and offloading facility (FSO) for oil. After years of neglect because of civil conflict, the FSO Safer is on the brink of breaking up, raising concerns about a potential oil spill that could wreak havoc on the fragile marine ecosystem and exacerbate the already dire humanitarian situation in Yemen.

Earlier in July, the UN said it had raised about 118 million dollars out of the estimated 148-million-dollar budget for the emergency rescue project for Safer.