A suspected oil spill covering dozens of square kilometers has been detected in satellite images near Iran’s Kharg Island, the country’s main oil export hub, though Tehran has denied responsibility and dismissed reports of a spill linked to Iranian facilities. Satellite imagery from the European Union’s Copernicus Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-3 satellites showed a grey-and-white slick in waters west of the island between May 6 and May 8. The cause of the suspected spill and its point of origin remain unclear.
Leon Moreland, a researcher at the Conflict and Environment Observatory, said the slick appeared visually consistent with oil and estimated that it covered about 45 square kilometers. Louis Goddard, co-founder of the climate and commodities consultancy Data Desk, also said the images likely showed an oil slick, describing it as potentially the largest such spill detected since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran 70 days ago.
Maariv cited an Iranian official Friday denying the report and calling it part of enemy “psychological warfare.” The official claimed the material seen in the area came from oil tanker waste discharged into the sea by a European tanker, which he said had damaged the environment.The US military and Iran’s mission to the United Nations in Geneva did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the satellite images. Kharg Island is central to Iran’s energy sector, handling around 90% of the country’s oil exports, much of them bound for China. US forces previously said they destroyed military targets on the island earlier in the war. (Ed note: What no one is talking about at this point is the fact that that oil slick is moving towards Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. That could compromise saltwater distillation and reverse osmosis processes, sparking severe water security concerns across the region. If that offshore oil slick catches fire, it poses a severe threat to local marine and coastal environments and no one goes fishing for a very long time. The people of the Bushehr area could be heavily impacted by a black rain fallout.) (Read More)
