Oil Slicks and a Burning Ship Show the Toll of the Hormuz Crisis

Sentinel-2c satellite imagery taken on August 5 off the northern tip of Oman’s Musandam Peninsula shows the extent of damage inflicted on shipping and Oman’s coastline as a consequence of Iranian IRGC drone and anti-shipping cruise missile attacks.

Clearly identifiable both from its length and its color is the 225m container ship, the Liberian-flagged Minoan Pioneer (IMO 9471630). The Minoan Pioneer was attacked on August 3, and her third engineer remains missing. Yesterday this vessel was appearing as a hot spot on NASA FIRMS fire detection satellite imagery. The ship is no longer burning to a degree which shows a red heat signature in FIRMS, but in today’s Sentinel imagery black smoke appears to be still coming off the bow of the ship.

The Minoan Pioneer does not appear to be leaking bunker fuel, and the source is unclear; though the resolution of Sentinel-2 imagery has limits, it is possible that there may be two additional, smaller vessels linked to some of the visible oil plumes (circled in green and yellow).

Royal Navy of Oman locations on Goat Island (left) and Didamar (right), the Minoan Pioneer (red) and two possible small 85m (yellow) and 55m (green) vessels plus oil spills (Sentinel-2c/CJRC)

Tidal flow in the Strait is heavier than within the Gulf, and tends to flow inwards through the north of the Strait and outwards in the southern section. Salinity is lower in the Gulf of Oman than within the Arabian Gulf, but tidal mixing forces are vigorous, quickly evening out the salinity, a tidal mechanism which should help with the dispersal of oil.

Locations where vessels are known to have been struck within Omani territorial waters while transiting the Omani coastal route (Google Earth/CJRC)

There is no evidence in the imagery of any salvage or cleanup activity underway, presumably because any such activity could be vulnerable to IRGC drone or missile attack. At the single point in time of imaging, no warships were identifiable, nor were any ships spotted using the Omani coastal route to either enter or exit the Gulf.

Any cleanup activity undertaken once the military situation permits will be difficult and complex, because the Musandam Peninsula’s fjord-like coastline is both difficult to navigate and typically has no accessible shoreline, its cliffs falling directly into the sea. Given the mountainous terrain, many of the remote fishing communities scattered around the northern and eastern coast are only accessible by sea.