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<\/a><\/p>\nPublished On 13 Aug 202613 Aug 2026<\/p>\n
A major oil spill off Oman has spread to the country\u2019s mainland, polluting beaches along the central coast,\u00a0environmental authorities have said.<\/p>\n
Oil from the Caroline Bezengi, a tanker that has been leaking crude since running aground off Oman in June, has reached beaches in Ras Madrakah, affecting up to 40km (25 miles) of coastline, the sultanate\u2019s Environment Authority said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
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Oil is also expected to reach the southern coast of Masirah Island, about 15km (9 miles) off the Omani coast, in the \u201ccoming hours\u201d, affecting a 10-20 km (6-12 mile) stretch of coastline, the authority said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpecialised teams continue to carry out monitoring, follow-up, and response operations and to take the necessary measures to limit the spread of pollution and minimise its potential impacts, with priority given to areas of high environmental sensitivity,\u201d the authority said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Omani authorities said earlier this week that the spill measured nearly 400 square kilometres (154 square miles), with the slick concentrated around the Hallaniyat archipelago, home to a marine reserve established last year to preserve the habitats of sea turtles and other aquatic life.<\/p>\n
Environmental groups including Greenpeace have estimated that the spill is significantly larger than indicated by Omani authorities.<\/p>\n
The Caroline Bezengi has been disabled near Oman\u2019s Al Hallaniyat Islands\u00a0since June 8, when the ship\u2019s crew reported a suspected explosion.<\/p>\n
The cause of the incident has not been reported.<\/p>\n
Western governments have identified the Caroline Bezengi, which most recently sailed under the flag of Cameroon, as part of Russia\u2019s shadow fleet used to transport Russian oil, which has been heavily sanctioned since Moscow launched its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Built in 2001, the tanker is currently under sanctions in the European Union, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Canada and Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Rentoor Shipmanagement and Villar Shipmanagement, both based in China, are registered as the ship\u2019s owner and operator, respectively, according to the open-source database OpenSanctions.<\/p>\n
Environmental groups have expressed alarm at the fallout of the widening spill on the region\u2019s coastlines and ecosystems.<\/p>\n
Last week, Greenpeace warned of the risk of an \u201cunprecedented oil disaster\u201d without urgent action to contain the spill.<\/p>\n
Christopher D\u2019Elia, a specialist in oil spills and a professor emeritus at Louisiana State University in the United States, said the estimated 800,000 barrels of crude on board the Caroline Bezengi would amount to a \u201cfairly large spill\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis spill raises a lot of issues,\u201d D\u2019Elia told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese illegal tankers don\u2019t comply with the \u2018polluter pays\u2019 principle that is the basis for how the US and other developed nations regulate spills,\u201d D\u2019Elia said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe \u2018responsible party\u2019 must finance the cleanup in the US. In this case, there is no responsible party.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Up to 40km of coastline affected by oil pollution, Omani Environment Authority says. Published On 13 Aug 202613…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[269],"tags":[179,18,7520,440,19,17,8820,5,47617,3037,133],"class_list":["post-634663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-economy","tag-eire","tag-energy","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-oil-and-gas","tag-oman","tag-science"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117087256462703613","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}