Muscat: Oman’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs (Meca) along with other authorities are working to determine the party responsible for an oil leak on Oman’s northern coast.
An official at Meca told Gulf News that efforts to contain and clean the oil sludge that appeared on Muscatel’s coastline were ongoing.
The official added that samples of oil had been taken to the Ministry’s laboratory for further examination. “After examining the oil print, we can find out who is responsible for the contamination”, says the official.
The official affirmed that the concentration of the oil sludge on beaches is limited and has not caused significant damage. Oman’s state-owned oil company, Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), has denied responsibility.
Mohammad Al Salmani, corporate health, safety and environment manger at PDO, said that the crude oil deposits, which have been reported to have affected the local coastline, “are not as a result of our operations”. “PDO has surveyed its facilities and confirmed that it is not related to our tinkering operations at Mina Al Fahal”.
Al Salmani said that Meca was aware of the problem, which has affected wide parts of the northern coastline from the Wave in the north west of the capital, down to Shatti Al Qurum beach, Mina Al Fahal area of the capital, as well as Sifah south-east of Muscat and the picturesque Dimaniyat Islands, which is a nature reserve. Meca has been surveying the sea and coastline in those areas since the end of last week.
PDO advises families to avoid swimming in the sea until the issue is resolved.
Meanwhile, four people sustained medium injuries when a fire broke out in a gas container at Mina Al Fahal oil refinery on Thursday afternoon.
It took personnel at the civil defence authority three hours to douse the fire. An official at the Public Authority for Civil Defence and Ambulance (PACDA), told Gulf News that the cause of the fire was still unknown.
Ambulances, fire trucks and water tankers from different civil defence centres of Muscat, attended the official said. Staff at Mina Al Fahal were evacuated.
