Maritime Transportation in Arabian / Persian Gulf - Research Paper Example

Although rescue attempts for the Sea Star was made, the super tanker sank into the Persian Gulf after several explosions followed by huge volume of oil spill in the region. Nowruz oil field spill Nowruz oil field was the crude oil production and supply region controlled by Iran in the Persian Gulf. The oil spill occurred when the oil tanker of Iran collided with a platform and spilled 80 million gallon oil in the region in the year 1983. The platform was deliberately set on fire by the attacks of the Iraqi helicopters with an aim to explode the platform.

Iran has been able to cap the platform to prevent further oil spill. Gulf war oil spill The Gulf war in 1991 resulted in the largest oil spills in the history. A total volume of 380 gallons to 520 gallons of oil were spilled in the region due to the attacks of the US fighter planes over Persian Gulf. The US forces identified Kuwait as the main source of oil in the Persian Gulf and destroyed several oil tankers of Kuwait in the region resulting in the huge oil spill (Johnson, 1991). Tankers and spills The activities of the oil spills from the tankers in the Gulf region have been explained below.

Activity Statistics The Persian Gulf is a kidney shaped water body that is used by the oil producing Arab countries, namely Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, Iran, etc. for their activities of crude oil production and supplies. . The statistical data on the activities of oil spills before the Gulf war of 1991has been presented in the table given below (Remote Sensing Core Curriculum, 2013). Year Location Volume of oil spill (million barrels) 1978 Iran (Well 126) 0.7 1981 Kuwait (Petroleum Tank) 0.7 1983 Iran (Norwuz Oil Spill) 1.

9 1983 Qatar 0.3 1985 Iran (Khar Island) 0.5 The activity statistics reveal that the Gulf war resulted in the oil spill of about 580 million gallons in the Persian Gulf. Reporting system The high volume of crude oil production and supplies in the Gulf region is administered by the reporting system put in place by the regulatory authorities of the Arabian countries surrounding the Persian Gulf. The system requires monitoring and reporting of the activities of oil spills in the region in order to control the environmental damages.

The non-conformance to the reporting standards results in the imposition of penalties. Wars The Gulf war in the year 1991 has been due to the intentions of the US to attain controlling power over the oil tankers in the region of Persian Gulf. The war held between the US fighter plane and the Kuwait forces lasted for a period of 10 days resulting into the largest oil spill in the history of Persian Gulf. Water evaporation The increasing activities of drilling and oil extraction in the region of Persian Gulf have resulted into excessive evaporation of water.

This has caused imbalance in the bio diversity in the region and has affected the marine organism as well as humans on the coasts. The economic activities related to mineral resource extraction have also been hampered. Pollution from ships The spillage of oil from the ships and the tankers in the water body of Persian Gulf has resulted into water pollution. The marine organisms were