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Oil spill hits Oman shores: Bad weather complicates salvage efforts, official says
Oman has shared more photos of the Caroline Bezengi tanker, which ran aground on June 30
- PUBLISHED: Mon 17 Aug 2026, 3:13 PM
An Omani official said on Monday that rescue and containment efforts to address the oil spill from a tanker which ran aground off the Sultanate's shores are ongoing amid extremely challenging weather conditions.
The slick that resulted from the grounding of the Caroline Bezengi oil tanker on June 30 at Al Hallaniyat Islands affected around 12km of beaches in the Sultanate.
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Oman's state news agency reported that with wind speeds in the area where the salvage efforts are taking place can reach around 40 knots at times and sea waves rise to approximately 4 metres, making it extremely difficult and complex to approach the vessel by sea or air.
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Authorities in Oman have coordinated with risk management firm Ambrey to import and prepare pollution-control materials and equipment to contain the spread of the oil spill.
The British company will send rubber booms, response equipment and materials, and chemical dispersants, the Omani state news agency cited the official as saying. This also includes providing a specialised vessel to transport and deploy the equipment and materials at the incident site, Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Rawahi, Director General of Maritime Affairs at the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology said.
He explained that the challenging weather conditions during the khareef season, accompanied by strong winds and high waves, have created exceptional technical and operational challenges, making it extremely difficult to safely approach the vessel.
In addition to this, the waters surrounding the vessel’s grounding site are shallow and rocky, while accurate marine and hydrographic data to determine depths and safe approach routes are limited.
Al Rawahi stressed that this posed an additional challenge for support vessels, which require a high degree of precision when operating near the grounded vessel to ensure safety. Accordingly, bringing rescue vessels and marine equipment close to the incident site under the current conditions poses operational and navigational risks, prompting authorities to explore alternative means of reaching the vessel and supporting the teams working onboard.
Challenges are not limited to the conditions surrounding the vessel but also extend to the ship's physical condition, the Omani official said.
The vessel is grounded on a rocky area and tilted at an angle of about 17 degrees, causing water to submerge a large part of one side and making movement and work onboard more difficult
Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al Rawahi, Director General Of Maritime Affairs At Oman'S Ministry Of Transport, Communications And Information Technology
He also noted that oil and seawater on the vessel’s deck, combined with strong waves and winds, have made some work areas slippery and unsafe. In addition, the vessel has no reliable operational power source to run the equipment required for the rescue operation. Under these circumstances, cargo transfer or intense rescue operations cannot begin until minimum safety requirements are met and work areas onboard are secured.
The current priority, Al Rawahi, is to secure a suitable and safe working environment for the technical teams by cleaning and preparing work areas, conducting safety checks and gas and oxygen measurements, and identifying suitable locations for installing equipment. This also includes preparing and transporting electrical generators, technical equipment and the necessary rescue equipment to enable the teams to carry out subsequent operations.
Oil spill containment efforts
In parallel with securing the working environment, technical teams are assessing and implementing possible solutions to limit the continued spill and maintain the stability of the vessel and its cargo as far as possible.
One of the technical options being considered is the transfer of oil from damaged tanks to intact and safe tanks within the vessel, when its condition and safety requirements permit, with the aim of reducing the amount of oil at risk of spilling and mitigating the pressure and risks associated with the damaged tanks.
Al Rawahi said that this operation requires the installation of power equipment, pumps and supporting systems, along with continuous checks of the vessel’s stability, the integrity of the tanks and operating conditions before any transfer can take place.
He added that marine and hydrographic surveys are being conducted in the areas surrounding the vessel and along potential approach routes to provide accurate data on water depths, seabed conditions and navigational hazards, and to identify safe routes and locations that rescue and support vessels can use during the next stages.
What happened to Caroline Bezengi?
On June 30, the Caroline Bezengi tanker, carrying an estimated 800,000 barrels of Russian oil and under international sanctions, ran aground off Oman's shores.
It first reported difficulties off Yemen on June 8 after what maritime sources said appeared to be a blast. Corey Ranslem, CEO of maritime security group Dryad Global, said that damage visible in an image that Ambrey released of the grounded vessel showed burn marks indicating a fire or explosion aboard, but that it was not immediately possible to determine what caused it.
No party has claimed an attack, but the vessel was navigating two separate wars on its journey from Russia to India.
In April it sailed from the Russian port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea, a flashpoint in the Russia-Ukraine war. Ukraine has carried out assaults on what is known as the shadow fleet of ageing vessels used to carry Russian oil.
The Caroline Bezengi, which is part of the shadow fleet, passed through the Suez Canal at the end of May, ship-tracking data shows. It then sailed past Yemen, where the Iran-aligned Houthi militants have entered a wider regional war between the US, Israel and Iran.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Yasmin Hussein is an Assistant Digital Editor who believes that every news story carries a human element. Her motto is 'get it first, but first get it right'.