Persian Gulf nations last week braced for a major oil spill drifting toward their coasts in the wake of a Mar. 30 collision of two supertankers in the Gulf of Oman about 9 miles off Fujairah, U.A.E.
At presstime last week, an oil slick had fouled as much as 50 km of the Fujairah coastline and appeared to be threatening the coast of Oman. It was uncertain whether other Persian Gulf countries were threatened by the spill, but some reports had the slick drifting toward the Iranian coast.
As the stick spread from the Gulf of Oman to the Arabian Sea late last week, U.A.E. authorities scrambled to deploy containment booms, reportedly containing as much as half of the spill. According to press reports, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. was moving in equipment and personnel to cope with the spill, and several international spill control companies had submitted bids for a cleanup contract.
Kuwait News Agency reported the Regional Organization for the Protection of the Marine Environment (Ropme) said Oman had set up a fully equipped team to combat the oil spill, and other gulf states were taking containment measures. Iran also was reported to have offered spill cleanup help.
THE ACCIDENT
The collision involved the U.A.E. registered Baynunah and Panamanian registered Seki tankers about 60 miles south of the Strait of Hormuz as the two were maneuvering to anchor.
The Seki, carrying Iranian light crude from Iran's Kharg Island and destined for Kiire, Japan, slammed into the Baynunah, which was laden only with ballast after returning from a voyage to deliver crude to Japan. The Seki's crude cargo was estimated at 1.8 million bbl.
The accident occurred at night, and there was no immediate report of casualties or signs of fire on either tanker, Lloyd's Shipping Service said.
The Seki's portside hull ruptured, spilling a volume estimated initially at 48,000-51,000 bbl of crude. Later estimates placed the spilled volume at as much as 109,500 bbl. The Baynunah was damaged, but it managed to anchor safely off Fujairah.
THE SPILL
The Seki's agents, World Wide Shipping Agency, Hong Kong, said only that "some" oil had escaped and an oil containment boom was deployed around the vessel, Associated Press reported.
As of Mar. 31, Fujairah Port Director Roger Saunders said oil had virtually stopped leaking from the Seki, and salvage teams had pumped a lot of oil from the damaged tanker, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported. "There is no threat to our beaches at the moment, as the winds are in our favor," AFP quoted Saunders as saying.
That changed the evening of Mar. 31, however, when 11-17 mph winds and 2-3 ft waves caused the spill to wash past the containment booms, executives with a Greek company brought in to help with the cleanup told AP. The officials said calmer weather Apr. 1 was helping the cleanup, and skimmers had collected about one seventh of the oil believed spilled.
At that point, the slick had grown to as much as 10 miles wide, AP reported, but was thin and drifting off the Fujairah town of Diba. U.A.E. officials expressed concern about the spill threat to power and desalination plants and commercial fishing in the area.
Ropme warned the spill would affect fisheries in the region for many years to come and could destroy many sensitive marine ecosystems
Ropme members are U.A.E., Kuwait, Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Qatar.
Industry officials said the spill would further strengthen the Persian Gulf's environmentalist lobby's calls for tougher tanker spill prevention measures.
