Zoom Image

Firefighting operation on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico – the cause of the oil slick?

Photo: Mexico Petroleos Mexicanos / REUTERS

On the Gulf of Mexico, the foothills of an oil slick of more than 100 square kilometers have reached numerous beaches, according to official figures. The oil in the sea was "spread on all the beaches of the Gulf," said Alejandro Brown Gantús, deputy prosecutor for environmental crimes in the southeastern Mexican state of Campeche. As early as mid-July, several Mexican non-governmental organizations (NGOs) had pointed out the oil spill and complained about the "complete lack of transparency" on the part of the authorities.

Deputy Prosecutor Brown Gantús told AFP that he feared "serious environmental damage". In Campeche, environmentalists had cleaned in the past few days, according to the observation of AFP journalists, a 500-meter-long stretch of beach, in front of which the water was contaminated by black spots.

In recent days, the Mexican news portal "El País" had reported that the oil had reached the four southeastern Mexican states of Campeche, Tabasco, Tamaulipas and Veracruz, and that no oil spills have been reported from Cancún, which is particularly popular with tourists.

Several NGOs, including Greenpeace, had already reported on July 18 of a 400-square-kilometer oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico. The organizations had located him near an oil platform where there had been an explosion and fire on July 7 that killed two workers. According to the NGOs, however, the leakage of oil was already evident on 4 July.

A natural cause? Improbable

The state-owned oil company Pemex denied the reports about the extent of the oil spill. At the beginning of July, there was only a "natural leakage of hydrocarbons". The leak was sealed on July 22.

In principle, when oceans are polluted by oil, natural leaks from the seabed can also be the cause. However, an evaluation of satellite data in 2022 showed that in 90 percent of cases, the oil slicks are caused by humans.

Researchers from Nanjing University in China used images from radar satellites to take a closer look at pollution on the world's oceans. With the help of artificial intelligence, they were able to identify more than 450,000 oil slicks, including comparatively small contaminants. The oil slicks recorded between 2014 and 2019 alone added up to a total area of 1.5 million square kilometers.

The researchers' conclusion: 94 percent of the pollution is due to human activities, such as releases from ships, offshore production facilities or pipelines.

oka/AFP