Would an oil spill in the Middle Eastern Gulf be easier to contain?

Jodie Humphries

The news of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill couldn't have escaped the attention of anyone. As the news of the devastation being caused continues to escalate, people have started to ask what would happen if it happened elsewhere. If an oil spill of this size happened in the Middle Eastern Gulf, would it be easier to contain?

Tarred beaches, dead and dying wildlife, damaged fisheries, contaminated water supplies - these are the short-term effects of an oil spill. In the long-term, toxic materials from oil can remain in the water and on the land for many years. They can build up in the food chain to lethal levels, and destroy or disrupt and area's ecosystem.

According to officials familiar with the region, you wouldn't see the devastation currently being seen in the US, as an oil spill in the Middle Eastern Gulf would be easier to contain than the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Shallow water in the Middle Eastern Gulf

Unlike the Gulf of Mexico, the Middle Eastern Gulf, which is a major global supplier of oil - more than half the world's known oil reserves are sitting under Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates - has very shallow waters and is almost a closed sea with its bottleneck link to the Indian Ocean.

But according to Paul Hood, a Qatar-based executive at Maersk Oil, the impact of an oil spill in the Gulf would be less severe as it could be contained quicker.

"The pressures we see in the Gulf are much more modest ... a third of the pressure (in the Gulf of Mexico)," he said.

Hood also said that relieve wells in the Gulf could be drilled in about 60 days, quicker than in the much deeper waters off the US coast.

Oil spilling from BP's blown-out deep-water well may not be shut off until August, or in a worst case scenario December, after all attempts to contain the spill have failed in what is seen as the United States' worst environmental disaster.

Despite toiling at the leak site, first with a 100-ton dome and then the 'Top Kill' method, BP have conceded that they won't be able to fully stop the leak until a relief well is completed, which will take a further two months to finish. In the meantime, they will continue to hoover up as much oil as possible through a RITT, which then transports the collecting oil up to a containment vessel at the surface, Next Generation Oil and Gas reported in their extensive coverage of the spill.

Power generation could be vulnerable to oil spills

Despite officials saying that if an oil spill did happen, it would be easier to contain, power generation in the Gulf states could still be vulnerable to oil spills.

"If there is oil spillage in the Gulf all power plants have to stop straight away", said Vincent Dewulf, business development manager at Shell Gas & Power International to Arabian Business.

Gulf Arab states rely on cooling water from the Gulf for their power generation needed to cool their vast shopping malls and glitzy sky-scrapers, and some plants such as Bahrain's Al Dur power plant feature integrated desalination systems.

Dewulf said he expected the spill to have a severe impact on all oil majors as regulators will tighten their rules.

Becoming wary of oil spills

Armando Zamora, director general of Colombia's National Hydrocarbons Agency, told Reuters he expected regulators to become more wary of oil companies.

"They can not just take the word of oil companies that everything is OK, that everything is under control," he said.

Zamora said the oil spill would be on the agenda of a meeting of regulators from Colombia, Mexico, Brazil and Peru this month.

The oil spill has cast a long shadow on off-shore production and Washington has imposed a six-month moratorium on deep-water oil drilling. Off-shore oil production accounts for about 25 percent of total US crude production.

"Obviously most of the growth in US production in the years to come was meant to come from the Gulf of Mexico," said Morgan Trevor, senior energy economist at the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Trevor said he also expects regulations to be tougher, leading to higher investments and operating costs. "I think it's inevitable that safety regulations at least in the US are going to get tougher; that it's going to cost the companies more."

Middle Eastern oil spill

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill may be the worst for the US, but the world has seen another spill back in the very early nineties - but that attack was deliberate.

As much as 11 million barrels of crude were deliberately released into waters offshore Kuwait in a blatant act of eco-terrorism by Iraqi forces invading the emirate. At the time, many eminent environmental prognosticators predicted the Gulf would become another Dead Sea, or at least would never be the same again.

The oil may have destroyed or severely disrupted the area's marine ecosystem - the oil covered some 600 square miles of sea surface and blackened 300 miles of coastline. The waters of the Gulf contain coral reefs, mangrove swamps, and beds of sea grass and algae, as well as birds, sea turtles, fish and marine mammals. All these plants and animals were affected by the oil. Mangrove swamps and other kinds of wetlands are very sensitive to oil because their root systems are above water and can become coated or clogged with oil.

Due to this oil spill happening during a time of war, clean-up actions were delayed. Efforts were made to protect a few delicate areas. If action could have been taken earlier, less oil would have gotten into the water. Booms and skimmers were set up and used to protect some areas. People from all over the world went to the area to help with the cleanup, the article 'Oil spills' stated.

Inevitably, there were studies of the after-effects of the 1991 Gulf War oil spill. The conclusions drawn have been mostly reassuring. For instance, a 1993 study sponsored by UNESCO found little damage to habitats beyond the intertidal zone.

A report 12 years after the oil spill found that there is still effects of the oil spill. Oil residues have persisted along contaminated shorelines of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, even if new sand has covered them to reduce the visual impact. One of the most serious consequences has been the growth of dense algal mats in oiled areas, clogging crab burrows and inhibiting the rehabilitation of salt flats.

In general, however, most studies showed that the aftermath of the world's biggest oil spill was not as serious as expected, the article 'Largest oil spill left limited lasting impression' reported.

So could the Middle Eastern Gulf handle an oil spill better? Let's us hope we never have to find out for sure.

 

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