Saudi paper reports oil slick off Bahrain

An unknown incident has caused a large oil slick off Bahrain and it was moving towards Saudi Arabia’s eastern coast in the Gulf, a Saudi daily said Saturday.

Alyoum Arabic language newspaper said the spill is spread over nearly 150 square metres just off the eastern Bahraini island of Sitra, where the government-controlled Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) has oil storage tanks and several industrial firms operate.

“Experts expect the slick which has emerged off Sitra Island to reach the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia and other areas in the Gulf,” the paper said.

It quoted residents of Sitra as saying experts from industrial companies operating on the Island came on Tuesday and inspected the slick.

The paper said it was told by officials from the Bahraini Ministry of Fisheries that the slick is around 150 square metres.

“However, Bapco said it is only 70 square metres and that it has managed to control the spill…the company affirmed that it will succeed in removing the slick because it was still on the surface of the water,” the paper said.

It quoted a Bapco source as saying the spill could have been caused by oil sludge and waste dumping by a tanker which passed near Sitra on Tuesday.

“The tide has pushed a part of this slick towards the Island’s shores and turned into scattered tar spots on the beaches…we will conduct a clean up operation there and it could take three days to remove them,” the source said.

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