Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 7, 1991 TAG: 9102070133
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: SAFANIYA BASE CAMP, SAUDI ARABIA LENGTH: Medium
Three separate slicks, one of them the largest ever recorded, were once again moving southward in the gulf after being held back by southerly winds last week. The slicks were also reportedly threatening fishing grounds and water desalting plants.
An official of the giant Aramco oil company, speaking anonymously, said the seashore at Safaniya, 50 miles south of the Kuwait border and a few miles north of this camp, was "all full of oil."
But company spokesman Joe Kenney said the huge Safaniya offshore field off northern Saudi Arabia - one of the largest sources of oil used to make military jet fuel for Operation Desert Storm - continued in full operation.
Oil was visible onshore near a sea water intake lagoon that supplies a desalination plant needed to process oil from Safaniya.
Segundo Fernandez, an operating superintendent for the Aramco, said that if oil enters the water intake at Safaniya, the onshore processing plant would be crippled.
"It would mess up the wash-water capability," he said. "If we don't have any wash water, we cannot desalt the crude and then we can't handle it."
A company spokesman said crews of oil workers, flown in from India, were working around the clock to install multiple layers of floating plastic barriers to keep oil away from the intake lagoon. Offshore, a small fleet of skimming boats tried to suck up oil.
At Tanajib, another Aramco site 10 miles south of Safaniya, two water birds flopped along the shore, their feathers so coated with black petroleum that they couldn't spread their wings.
Workers lay booms to protect the water intake of a mothballed processing plant that could be pressed into service if Safaniya is contaminated.
by CNB