Biggest oil spill tackled in gulf amid war, soft market
Industry is scrambling to cope with history's biggest oil spill against the backdrop of a Persian Gulf war and a softening oil market. U.S. and Saudi Arabian officials accused Iraq of unleashing an oil spill of about 11 million bbl into the Persian Gulf off Kuwait last week by releasing crude from the giant Sea Island tanker loading terminal at Mina al Ahmadi. Smart bombs delivered by U.S. aircraft hit two onshore tank farm manifold stations, cutting off the terminal's source of oil flow Jan. 26. A small volume of oil was still leaking from 13 mile feeder pipelines to the terminal at presstime. Press reports quoted U.S. military and Saudi officials as estimating the slick at 35 miles long and 10 miles wide but breaking up in some areas late last week. Meantime, Iraq reportedly opened the valves at its Mina al Bakr marine terminal at Fao to spill crude into the northern gulf. BBC reported significant volumes of crude in the water off Fao 24 hr after the terminal valves were opened. Mina al Bakr is a considerably smaller terminal than Sea Island, suggesting that the resulting flow of oil would be smaller than that at Sea Island.
- OSTI ID:
- 5716010
- Journal Information:
- Oil and Gas Journal; (USA), Vol. 89:5; ISSN 0030-1388
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
PERSIAN GULF
OIL SPILLS
PETROLEUM
WATER POLLUTION CONTROL
BIODEGRADATION
PLANNING
POLLUTION CONTROL EQUIPMENT
ARABIAN SEA
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CONTROL
DECOMPOSITION
ENERGY SOURCES
EQUIPMENT
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
INDIAN OCEAN
POLLUTION CONTROL
SEAS
SURFACE WATERS
020900* - Petroleum- Environmental Aspects
540320 - Environment
Aquatic- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (1990-)