Abu Dhabi: The beaches on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi reopened on Friday morning after being closed for a few days due to a minor oil spill.

“All access to the beaches on Saadiyat Island and its surrounding waters has been restored,” the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority (ADTCA) said in a statement issued to Gulf News on Friday.

“Saadiyat Beach water access was closed as a matter of public safety while reports of oil spills onto our beaches were investigated,” the authority said without elaborating on the investigation results or remedial steps taken to deal with the oil spill.

Saadiyat remains one of the most pristine beach environments in the Arabian Gulf, access to which, is limited, the authority said.

Many visitors started coming and swimming in the waters since Friday morning, the staff at Saadiyat Public Beach told Gulf News on Friday.

“It is nice that the beach was reopened at the beginning of the weekend. The public beach receives most of the visitors on Friday and Saturday-around 1,000 people a day,” said the staff who did not want to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

“We receive 100 to 400 visitors on working days,” they said.

As Gulf News reported on Thursday, some visitors went back from the entrance of the public beach when swimming was not allowed (from last Saturday to Thursday), many others visited to relax and sunbathe on the dry areas of the beach. The public beach is open from 8am to 8pm.

The ADTCA had issued beach closure orders for properties along Saadiyat Beach after oil washed up over the last weekend.

The Environment Agency- Abu Dhabi (EAD) had said it was a minor oil spill, which was reported on February 14. EAD officials had visited the site, collected water samples and started investigations into the cause of oil spill. However, the authorities did not explain what the source of the spill is. EAD was not available for comments on Friday.

The cleaners on the beach said they had found pieces of tar washed up on the beach. They suspected the tar might have spilt from a ship, but no official conformation was available.

Saadiyat Island, located near Port Zayed in Mina area of Abu Dhabi City, has many residential, cultural and tourism projects including star hotels. The island is expected to have about 160,000 residents by 2018, upon completion of all projects. Hundreds of residents have already occupied residential projects.