Oil contamination in the Red sea environment

Abstract

A survey of chronic oil pollution sources in the Red Sea and its gulves is given. The Red Sea is suffering from oil pollution along most of its coasts as well as in its offshore waters. Oil inputs from all sources in the Red Sea were estimated and compared with those in the world's oceans. While each km2 in the world's oceans receives 9.17 kg yr−1 of oil, each km2 in the Red Sea receives 14.61 kg yr−1. Oil inputs from refineries was also estimated for the Red Sea. It was found that each km2 of the Red Sea receives about 13 times the quantity received by each km2 in the world's oceans.