Dubai: Fears of an oil spill or petroleum products polluting the sea at Sharjah Port after a fire raged through an oil storage facility have been quashed by environment sector officials.
The fire which started on Friday night in the Emirates Oil Lube Company Ltd at Sharjah's biggest port, Port Khalid, caused acute damage to the facility.
Dr Mohammad Saeed Al Kindi, Minister of Environment and Water, confirmed that most of the pollution had come in the aftermath and caused large black plumes of smoke to be seen over the city as Civil Defence fought the flames.
"We have not had to interfere yet because Civil Defence and firefighters are on the site. It is under control now," said Al Kindi.
Explosion
According to an official from the Sharjah Port Authority the explosion took place 300 metres from the shore and no oil or chemicals have leaked into the sea.
"There is nothing in the sea at all, the fire was quite far from it. There was no threat of the oil leaking into the ocean at any time," he said.
According to Salem Daheri, director general of the Federal Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi no emergency clean up measures have been taken as no alarms were raised to notify the agency of an oil spill.
"There is no clean up or leakage in the sea. So far we have heard nothing. We have not been formally told about any oil in the sea. We should be alerted and no one has called us," said Daheri.
He added that in three or four days the extent of the damage will be evaluated and measures will be taken as necessary to minimise any environmental impact.
