Iran says suspected oil spill near Kharg Island caused by tanker discharge

• Iranian officials say a suspected oil slick near Kharg Island likely resulted from wastewater discharged by a tanker.
• Satellite imagery reportedly showed a large slick in a key Iranian oil export area, raising environmental concerns.

Iran’s vice president and head of the Environmental Protection Organization, Shina Ansari, said a suspected oil spill in the Gulf near Kharg Island was most likely caused by a ship releasing contaminated wastewater into the sea rather than a leak from Iranian oil infrastructure.

In comments reported by Iranian media, Ansari said monitoring data indicated the pollution came from a non-Iranian tanker.

“The monitoring results show the spill resulted from the discharge of polluted wastewater from a non-Iranian tanker, and no oil leaks were reported from pipelines or Iranian oil facilities,” she said.

According to the Open Source Unit at Al Jazeera Net, satellite imagery previously detected what appeared to be an oil slick spanning tens of square kilometres in waters near Kharg Island.

The island is Iran’s main offshore oil export hub and a strategically important site for the country’s energy sector.

Kharg Island plays a central role in Iran’s crude oil exports, making any environmental incident in the surrounding waters particularly sensitive.

While Iranian officials deny any domestic infrastructure failure, independent monitoring reports have raised concerns about the scale of the slick and its potential ecological impact on marine life in the Gulf.