Gulf states could use military sensors to track oil-spilling tankers

Gulf states are using military sensors to track tankers leaking oil along the region’s coastline, a US-based defence expert told Arabian Business.“We work with countries

to see what their particular local concerns are. One country has so much coastline and a lot of ships around the area they are tired of having their coastline polluted by folks dumping oil and other stuff overboard,” James Hvizd, vice president of space and airborne systems at US defence firm Raytheon told Arabian Business in an interview.
“So we have sensing solutions that can actually detect oil slicks and detect them all the way to the ship and now you have a way to go nail the ship and go find them and try and go collect money to go fix your environmental issues,” he added.
The Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in 4.9 million barrels of oil spilling into the sea in the summer of 2010 and analysts at UBS bank estimated the economic losses were as high as $12bn.
Raytheon technology was used in the cleanup operation in the US and Hvizd said such technology can now be adopted for use in the Arabian Gulf.
“The coastline in a lot of these regions, the Emirates is a great example, look at how many ships are sitting out at harbour each day, hundreds.
“The Ministry of Environment there has made it very clear over the years [it wants to tackle the environmental issue]. It is an exciting times to take our technology and work those issues,” said Hvizd.
Source: Arabian Business