An environmental organization said on Saturday that what was spotted off Kharg Island and believed to be an oil slick may have been caused by Iran's oil infrastructure, noting that satellite images show a "significant reduction" in its size.
In recent days, satellite images have shown what appears to be an oil slick off the coast of Iran’s Kharg Island.
The cause of the alleged oil spill off the west coast of the small island was not immediately clear.
The Conflict and Environment Observatory, a UK-based non-governmental organization, said: “The cause and source of this stain are still unknown and cannot be definitively determined based solely on the available images.”
Observatory researcher Leon Moreland said that marine infrastructure “may be a possible source, but we cannot definitively pinpoint a point of origin or attribute the leak to a specific cause at this time.”
But he noted that “the slick appears to be visually consistent with oil based on the analysis” of images taken by the European Copernicus Observatory.
Media reports, particularly from Fox News, indicated that Iranian oil storage facilities may be under significant pressure due to the US embargo on Iranian ports, which is disrupting the country's ability to export crude oil.
On Saturday, the head of the Iranian parliament's energy committee, Moussa Ahmadi, told the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA), "There is still no official report confirming" the existence of a leak at the Iranian oil facility due to pressures facing storage facilities.
He continued, "Production in the various oil fields in the country is continuing uninterrupted and without any problems."
Jafar Pourkabani, a member of the Iranian parliament representing the coastal district of Bushehr, had previously denied the validity of these reports, describing them as “false”.
State television quoted him as saying that “the spots observed via satellite around the steadfast Kharg Island are linked to oil and water waste dumped into the sea by a European oil tanker, thereby causing damage to the environment.”
Moreland said, "There is no clear evidence of additional active leaks around the island, although the previous slick is still visible and drifting south."
The observatory said that Copernicus images on Saturday appeared to show a “significant reduction” in the size of the suspected spot compared to images seen on Wednesday.
The observatory estimated the area of the original spot to be about 44 square kilometers (17 square miles).
But Orbital EOS, a company that monitors oil spills, told The New York Times that the area of the slick had exceeded 20 square miles (52 square kilometers) by Thursday.
Kharg Island is the beating heart of Iran’s oil sector and a pillar of the country’s struggling economy, and is located north of the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran effectively closed the vital Strait of Hormuz after the start of the US-Israeli war against it on February 28.