DUBAI: Sabotage attacks targeting four oil tankers off the coast of the UAE’s Fujairah port earlier this month not only highlighted a new threat to maritime traffic but also prompted a more immediate concern for environmentalists — the damage to marine ecosystems.
The warning comes after satellite imagery from the US-based Planet Labs and Finnish company Iceye showed oil leaking from the Saudi VLCC supertanker Amjad — one of the four vessels targeted — and spreading over a large area north of the Khor Fakkan section of the Arabian Gulf, with ocean trackers now monitoring the waters to determine the potential environmental aftermath of the incidents.
The attacks took place on May 12 east of Fujairah port, outside the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway through which most Gulf oil exports pass and which Iran has threatened to block in the event of a military confrontation with the US. The attacks drew strong condemnation from the Arab League and governments around the world.
The ship was empty of crude oil, but it was carrying fuel oil onboard. The oil spill is estimated to be about 235 barrels, according to TankerTrackers.com, an oil tanker tracking service.
Its co-founder, Samir Madani, told Arab News: “We spotted this fuel oil spill on May 17 (the day after the image was captured) on Planet Labs satellite imagery (they have 300 satellites lined up in an orbit to line-scan the Earth’s surface on a daily basis) but waited a few more days before being able to confirm that it wasn’t something else. As we saw that on May 20, the spill had started dispersing over a larger area north of Khor Fakkan.”
Now experts have warned that the attacks may also threaten marine life and biodiversity.
Madani said that depending on the grade of oil, it will either float or sink based on density, but warned that it could have a longer-term impact on the surrounding marine environment.
“Fuel oil is heavier than the average barrel of crude oil, so there is a chance that it’ll settle to the bottom and pollute the marine life,” he said. “Crude oil can be treated with dispersants such as we’ve seen in incidents in Kuwait, but we don’t have enough knowledge of what impact such chemicals have on marine life, either.”
The radar images captured by Iceye’s X2 satellite also detected a long trail leading from the Amjad two days after the attack, although it cannot state how much oil was present. “Oil on top of seawater is visible on radar satellite imaging because it changes the way the water surface reflects radio waves,” explained Iceye CEO Rafal Modrzewski.
“Oil forms a layer on top of the seawater. This changes the water’s viscosity, flattening and making the surface smoother. As a result, oil on water appears on the image as a dark patch.”
According to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), oil tankers transport some 2,900 million tons of crude oil and oil products every year around the world by sea. Most of the time, oil is transported quietly and safely. Measures introduced by the IMO have helped to ensure that most oil tankers are operated safely and are constructed to reduce the amount of oil spilled in the event of an accident.
However, when an accident involving ships or oil rigs occurs, the ocean water becomes contaminated by liquid petroleum hydrocarbon, with oils spills not only killing fish, marine mammals and birds but also causing damage to beaches and wildlife habitats.
“We run into spills all the time, and they are mostly fuel oil,” said Madani. “The most notorious area in the Gulf region is off the coast of Iraq, at the Umm Qasr anchorage, where there are a lot of ship-to-ship transfers of fuel oil, and things get sloppy when there’s no third vessel (tugboat) to quarantine the spill with the help of an oil boom.”
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1502996/middle-east