Black beaches: Oil spill in Ras Ghareb destroys marine life and threatens residents’ health
At sunrise, Fatima Gharib (42 years old) stands by her window in the Red Sea city of Ras Ghareb, hoping to catch a breath of sea air before she makes her way to the kindergarten where she works. But her minute’s peace is spoiled by the oil pollution that blights the shoreline, staining its sandy beaches and turning the turquoise sea black.
It’s not just this beach; the city’s coastline is swathed in black along its length as a result of repeated spills from the offshore fields which are operated by various oil companies. Fatima and the children at her kindergarten, along with tens of thousands of other local residents, are surrounded by environmental catastrophe on all sides. The city’s beaches are strewn with the decaying corpses of land animals, and fish stocks are contaminated with toxic substances which find their way into food supplies. Dark stains obscure the sand and pebbles on the shore.
Repeated oil spills also impact coral reefs, which are home to a vast array of marine life. But Egypt’s environmental protection and petroleum agencies are toothless, and oil companies frequently violate environmental protection and offshore drilling laws. The situation is aggravated by an ongoing exchange of accusations between the ministry for the environment and its regulatory agencies, and the oil companies who are the prime cause of environmental pollution in the area, as this report can reveal.
The Environmental Affairs Agency recorded 25 spill incidents in Ras Ghareb city between 2015 and 2019. In 22 of those cases, the agency found the General Petroleum Corporation responsible for coastal pollution, accusing the corporation of violating marine environmental protection laws. However, the corporation escaped accountability in several cases, benefiting from court rulings which found shared liability. Legal processes are often long and drawn-out, allowing evidence of the pollution to fade and making it harder to identify a culprit.
Meanwhile, fingerprinting tests performed on three samples, taken from spills that occurred between December 2018 and February 2019, showed that the oil matched that of the corporation’s fields and wells by over 99%. Those results—copies of which were seen by the author of this report—are challenged in the corporation’s defence documents, which claim that the oil fingerprint in question also matches spills originating with other companies.
The General Petroleum Corporation’s director, Nabil ‘Abd al-Sadiq, rejects the test results and accuses the Environmental Affairs Agency of failing in its responsibility to correctly identify which wells are responsible for spills. He claims the agency lacks the advanced equipment required to identify the sources of oil spills.
Although the corporation claims that the Environmental Affairs Agency “has nothing to offer but accusations” which it says are baseless, the author of this report was able to examine evidence recorded in a number of legal documents. Most court cases have nevertheless resulted in acquittals for the corporation—the only state-run company out of the 35 companies contracted by the Egyptian government to drill in the region. The corporation has succeeded in showing that the fingerprint of oil from its fields matches that of other companies operating in the same area, strengthening its case that liability is shared by the other companies and casting doubt on claims that the spills along the “black beaches” originate with the corporation.
Fatima and her neighbours are used to the sight of sea creatures lying dead on the beaches around their houses. The author of this report collected random specimens of marine life as well as soil and water samples from a number of sites, and submitted them for laboratory testing. The results revealed levels of contamination which exceeded international standards, posing a threat to marine life and residents of the surrounding area.
Ras Ghareb lies 314 kilometres south-east of Cairo and was home to 41,526 people at the end of 2019, according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics. The region produces 67% of Egypt’s total crude oil and gas condensate output at a current rate of 630,000 barrels per day, according to minister of petroleum Tarek al-Molla. The General Petroleum Corporation alone produces 37,000 barrels per day at its Ras Ghareb fields, a figure confirmed to the author of this report by current director Nabil ‘Abd al-Sadiq.
The author of this report compiled a list of oil spills which took place over the five years from 2015 to 2019, using data from reports produced by the Egyptian ministry of environment and ministry of petroleum.
Over the last three years, the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency has made fifteen reports to the Public Prosecution Office in which it accuses the General Petroleum Corporation of causing crude oil spills. The Ras Ghareb coastline, which runs for 75 kilometres along the Gulf of Suez, has experienced the highest number of spills.
Article 52 of the Egyptian environment law prohibits any company holding a license for marine oil exploration and extraction from allowing any pollutant resulting from drilling, exploration, well testing or production to enter the sea, and obliges companies to employ methods which do not pose a risk to surrounding marine environments. Article 90 of the law imposes a fine ranging from 150,000 Egyptian pounds ($3175) to 500,000 Egyptian pounds ($14,174) for violations.
On 3 January 2017, head of the parliamentary Energy and Environment Committee Hamada Ghallab presented the ministers of environment, petroleum and tourism with a briefing request regarding oil spills in the Ras Ghareb area. The briefing request was renewed by MP Tariq Mitwalli after five new incidents were recorded.
“It’s become ordinary,” is how Fatima describes the harmful practices of those responsible for pollution in the city. Pollution affects the lives of both those who live by the sea and those whose income is tied to its resources—fishermen.
Empty Nets
Samir Sabri has worked at sea for fifteen years—since he was eighteen—and knows no trade but fishing. But pollution along the coast means he no longer makes enough to live on. According to Sabri, entire species of fish have been wiped out, and his nets and gear have been damaged beyond repair.
Sabri’s complaints are confirmed by environmental inspection reports from the site of a spill which took place on 19 November 2018: “After each new spill, lumps of petroleum gather into small black blobs known as tarballs, which impede net fishing and the movement of boats, and mar the area’s beautiful sandy beaches.”
The decline of fish life on Ras Ghareb’s coast dates back five years to an uptick in petroleum spills, according to six veteran fishermen who spoke in interviews to this reporter. The head of Ras Ghareb’s fishermen’s cooperative society, Ali Husayn, says that approximately a thousand fishermen working out of 43 vessels earn their livelihood from the sea.
Husayn estimates that commercial fish stocks have declined by 80% and emphasises that a number of species—including the spangled emperor, red porgy, harir, and grouper—have vanished altogether. He says: “Fish stocks have declined in general, but during spills, catches are so small that fishing is no longer financially viable. One expedition costs the fisherman 800 EGP ($50), but after two days of backbreaking work he might come back with a catch worth no more than 100 EGP ($6.50), as a result of the disappearance of fish and death of larvae and juveniles.”
The toxic effects of oil components vary depending on the life stage of the fish, with larvae the weakest and most susceptible. Meanwhile, fish are most at danger when they are close to the surface of the water, according to a 2008 book published by the Egyptian environment ministry and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). A surface oil slick deprives marine life of sunlight, disrupts photosynthesis, and interferes with the food chain, according to environmental officials who examined dead spiny sea urchins at one spill site on 3 March 2019. The inspection report indicates that the spill has damaged sea shells, coral reefs, seagrasses and seaweed.
Older than the Pyramids
Over the last four years, Muhammad Kamal and his fellow fishermen have been using their mobile phone cameras to film and photograph the dead juvenile fish they find alongside their boats, providing evidence of crude oil pollution. Larvae and juvenile fish live among coral reefs, an important habitat for creatures which dwell on the seabed.
In April 2014, a study by researchers from the National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries estimated that 61% of Ras Ghareb’s coral coverage is dead. The study described oil spills near the city as the single most significant threat to the marine environment in the Red Sea coastal region.
“Coral reefs are thriving underwater cities inhabited by tiny fish,” says Montaser Al-Hammady, who is currently overseeing a study of the effects of oil pollution on the region. He says that the death of the reefs—which, at an estimated 10,000 years old, are older than the pyramids—has dramatically reduced fish habitats. Even if the spills stopped immediately, it would take fifty years for the reefs to recover, says al-Hammady.
Oil Fingerprints
All oil wells have their own fingerprint, explains the general director of the Environmental Affairs Agency’s Red Sea branch, Abu al-Hajjaj Nasr al-Din. By analysing a sample of oil from the site of a spill, he says, the Environmental Affairs Agency can determine which company is the source of the spill and order it to conduct a recovery operation or turn the task over to PetroSafe, the government’s petroleum safety and environmental services company. The recovery process can take from one to four days depending on the size of the spill.
When a spill takes place, complaints are received by a committee composed of representatives of agencies of the environment ministry, including the Environmental Affairs Agency, the natural protectorates, the General Administration for the Environment, and the environmental standards laboratory in Suez. The committee examines the grounds for the complaint and takes samples from the spill site, and a report is prepared on the quantity and surface area of the oil.
Different types of oil are distinguished by their fingerprint, a unique chemical composition which determines physical and chemical properties such as colour and viscosity, and is caused by the distinctive geological conditions and time periods in which the oil was formed. Oil fingerprints are identified through a complex process that makes use of gas chromatography analysis of molecular fossils, or biomarkers.
Kawthar Hifni, director of the Environmental Crises and Disasters Central Department until 2019, claims that recovery operations have fully rehabilitated the shoreline. Now a senior consultant with the environment ministry, she claims that beaches which may appear black are simply showing traces of “historical or accumulated pollution.”
But Ayman ‘Abd al-Wahid, co-ordinator of the National Emergency Plan to Combat Marine Oil Pollution, disagrees with Hifni’s assessment. He says that environments affected by oil pollution do not return to their former state since recovery operations tend to target only superficial, onshore pollution. “Pollution in the marine environment is never cleaned up, and has a long-term impact on sea life,” says ‘Abd al-Wahid.
On 5 July 2019, the author of this report observed a new spill which originated in the south of the General Petroleum Corporation and spread to Dayy al-Qamar beach and the southern region. On the 14th of the same month, the Environmental Affairs Agency accused the corporation of causing the spill.
On 19 August 2019—after several recovery operations had taken place—the author of this report took samples of fish, water, shells, and sand from a number of locations along the Ras Ghareb shoreline and sent them for laboratory analysis at the Sea and Ocean Institute, Suez branch.
On 9 September 2019, the test results showed that levels of petroleum contamination in the fish specimens were well above the level deemed safe for human consumption by the French Agency for Food Safety, which puts the limit at 1 microgramme per gramme.
The Environmental Affairs Agency warned in report number 40 that fish contaminated with oil were not fit for human consumption. The report stated that the most durable oil compounds could work their way up the food chain, accumulating in the liver and fat of marine creatures and posing long-term risks to humans the impact of which may not be known for years.
Wala’ Sha’ban, professor of oceanography at al-Azhar University’s science faculty, oversaw a study documenting the impact of oil pollution on soil and gastropods on the Red Sea coast. Humans who ingest fish contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, explains Sha’ban, are likely to experience lethargy and fatigue, shortness of breath, and sensitivity of the nerves and spine.
Ingesting hydrocarbons such as benzene and kerosene can cause throat and stomach irritation, pulmonary inflammation, and shortness of breath, and affect the central nervous system. Other compounds present within petroleum can affect the immune system, liver, spleen, kidney, and lungs, and impact foetal development. Benzene and benzo[a]pyrene are both known to cause leukaemia.
Source: US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)
When we confronted the co-ordinator of the environment ministry’s National Emergency Plan to Combat Marine Oil Pollution, Ayman ‘Abd al-Wahid, he rejected the hypothesis that contamination could affect humans in Ras Ghareb. “The city is a petroleum industry zone,” says ‘Abd al-Wahid. “No fishing or tourism activities take place on beaches which are polluted.”
Despite this, the author of this report saw security licenses issued for fishing on beaches which had been the site of repeated oil spills, including this beach.
Article 55 of Egyptian environment law 4 of 1994 requires companies engaged in oil extraction to report any new spills to the environment ministry. This doesn’t happen in Ras Ghareb, where it is locals, fishermen and border guards who report spills, according to reports 34, 35 and 279 (Ghareb Administrative). Husam Musa, who lives in Ras Ghareb, has created an online network where locals who have been impacted by pollution can report new incidents so as to draw the attention of the environmental authorities and recovery agencies.
Failure to Maintain
Kawthar Hifni, former head of the Environmental Crises and Disasters Central Department, attributed oil leaks to “a failure to monitor and maintain crude oil pipelines which connect offshore fields to onshore terminals, as well as neglect of the offshore fields and onshore terminals themselves.”
Drawing on her record at the environment ministry, where she worked until 2019, Hifni accuses “the General Petroleum Corporation of neglect in their response to oil spills.” She notes that she prepared a number of official reports on the corporation’s infractions, and that complaints have gone as far as the prime minister and president.
The Environmental Affairs Agency filed 22 official complaints against the General Petroleum Corporation between 2015 and 2019.
Meanwhile, the General Petroleum Corporation’s director, Nabil ‘Abd al-Sadiq, denies the suggestion that neglect is to blame for the spills, and claims that the corporation injects its pipelines with chemicals which prevent corrosion and insulates exterior platforms from seawater seepage.
Muhammad al-Alfi (not his real name), an employee in the petroleum ministry’s oil spill response teams, said that pipes “appear rusty and poorly maintained.” Employed in spill response for two years, he spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of losing his job.
But oil leaks can take place even during regular maintenance operations. The Marine Rescue Association recorded one large oil spill incident in January 2018 which was caused by the replacement of aging pipelines.
No Sanctions
The author of this report saw fingerprinting results for three samples of oil originating in a leak which took place between 12 December 2018 and 7 March 2019. All the results pointed to the General Petroleum Corporation’s Amer offshore platform, with matches of over 99%.
Nabil ‘Abd al-Sadiq, director of the General Petroleum Corporation, says in response that because the samples are not a 100% match, they do not provide sufficient evidence against the corporation, and do not directly identify any of the corporation’s platforms as the source of the spill, and hence are faulty and unreliable.
‘Abd al-Sadiq also casts doubt on the fingerprint itself, which he says can change with time. The oil fingerprint of a given well does not remain stable over the course of its lifetime. The Environmental Affairs Agency requires that each company provide an updated oil fingerprint at least once every three months, and says that the fingerprint currently on record for the corporation is not up to date.
Khalid al-Musilhi, deputy head of the Institute of Oceanography’s Suez branch, says that that claim is not correct. He explains that a match less than 100% can be accounted for by seawater mixing with the chemical compounds of a sample. A 99% match, says al-Musilhi, is enough to substantiate claims that a given company is at fault for an incident of environmental pollution.
In the court rulings which the author of this report was able to obtain, reports show that the layers the General Petroleum Corporation produces from are the same as those of the GAPCO Petrol Company. As a result, the General Petroleum Corporation won three cases lodged against it by the Environmental Affairs Agency: case 5478 of 2018 (Hurghada Appellate Misdemeanours), case 5652 of 2018, (Hurghada Appellate Misdemeanours), and 2494 (Ghareb Misdemeanours, appeal number 4197 of 2017) according to a statement by the corporation’s director.
Shared liability
Ultimately, shared liability has allowed the General Petroleum Corporation to escape a guilty verdict because the environment agencies can’t substantiate the charges against it. That’s what happened in case 2494, Ghareb misdemeanour court, in which the corporation was charged after a spill on 11/9/2015. The reasoning for the acquittal reads: “The environment report attributes responsibility to the General Petroleum Corporation on the grounds that it is the highest match, at 99.7%. However, this does not exclude the other companies operating in the vicinity of the shore, which leads the court to find that liability is shared by all of the aforementioned companies.”
Mahir Rashwan, head of environmental administration at the Environmental Affairs Agency’s Red Sea branch, puts the repeated acquittals down to the length of the court proceedings. When an environmental expert sent by the ministry of justice comes to inspect a spill site six months or a year after the incident, there are no traces left of the pollution indicated in the EAA[?] and public prosecutor’s reports.
A book submitted by the General Petroleum Corporation to the public prosecution office on 19 December 2018, in response to charges of causing an oil spill, reads: “Accurate identification of a pollution source relies not only on an oil fingerprint but also on observing the movement of the spill using programming and trajectory analysis, which the environment authorities have not conducted.”
These days, Samir no longer seeks his livelihood in Ras Ghareb, hoping that more distant coastal waters might fill his nets with food for his children. At the kindergarten, Fatima warns the children hovering around her to stay away from the contaminated beach, while Husam and his colleagues continue their online efforts to make the environmental authorities aware of the dangers of ongoing pollution.
On the horizon, the rocks are swathed in black, sand is concealed under lumps of accumulated oil, and the fish are either dead or have abandoned the reefs of the Red Sea. The gravest danger facing locals is the meal of fresh fish which might be brought back by fishermen after the next oil spill.
