Red Sea Oil Spill Not Caused By Rigs, Egypt’s Oil Ministry Says

The Egyptian Oil Ministry said crude oil that washed ashore at a major Red Sea beach resort area was leaked by a passing tanker or may have seeped from the ground due to a heat wave, but was not from any of its rigs.

The ministry’s report, issued today, said that all offshore oil platforms in the Red Sea are “sound,” according to the state-run Middle East News Agency. Oil from the rigs was compared with samples from the sea but the investigators “cannot say for sure” whether the samples matched.