Salvage Team Boards Leaking Tanker Caroline Bezengi as Oil Hits Oman Shore

The grounded Russian oil tanker Caroline Bezengi has had a salvage team on board since Thursday, as crude oil from the tanker reached the Omani coastline for the first time, putting around 40 kilometres of coast at risk.

British maritime risk firm Ambrey confirmed it is running the salvage operation. Specialists flew in with support from Oman's Royal Air Force, bringing around 100 metric tons of equipment. Containment support is already en route.

The Caroline Bezengi ran aground near the Hallaniyat Islands, off the southern Omani coast, on 30 June. It has been leaking ever since. The oil slick started at roughly 45 square kilometres in late July and has grown to more than 2,000 square kilometres. Thursday was the day it finally hit land.

Getting this under control is proving difficult. Oman's Khareef monsoon season brings heavy rain, low visibility and rough seas, all of which slow salvage work and add strain to a hull that has been sitting on the seabed for six weeks. Surveyors say the tanker has sunk deeper into the rock since the grounding. If the hull fractures, the remaining cargo could escape in much larger quantities than anything seen so far.

The tanker carries an estimated 800,000 barrels of Russian crude. It is on both the UK and EU sanctions lists, identified as part of Russia's shadow fleet of tankers moving oil in breach of international restrictions.

The Hallaniyat Islands are a designated marine nature reserve. The area is home to endangered Arabian Sea humpback whales and Socotra cormorant colonies, and the oil slick now threatens both directly. The wider Gulf of Oman has seen elevated tracking activity over the past 48 hours on MarineRadar, with 222 devices logged in the region as shipping movements in the Oman Sea corridor remain unusually high.