An apparent large oil spill spanning dozens of square miles of sea has been spotted off of Iran’s main oil hub of Kharg Island, according to open source satellite imagery and reporting in both the NY Times and Reuters on Friday.
The reports cite images from Copernicus’s Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2, and Sentinel-3 satellites taken from monitoring May 6 through 8 which show a huge grey-and-white slick extending out to the west of Kharg Island.
“The slick appears visually consistent with oil,” said Leon Moreland, a researcher at the Conflict and Environment Observatory, to Reuters. He believes it to be covering an area of approximately 45 square km (or nearly 18 sq miles).
While it’s unclear what may have caused it, or the extent of possible damage to Kharg Island infrastructure or possibly docked tankers, the island has been attacked by US aerial forces in the recent post.
One regional source provides the following commentary:
It could be the result of a leak. Other claims have suggested oil was pumped into the sea because storage space had run out due to the blockade. In newer images, the oil slick appeared to be moving south.
Social media users expressed concern over what appeared to be an oil spill in the satellite images.
“This must be dealt with quickly before the oil reaches the coasts of other Gulf states,” a Saudi influencer wrote on X, where he has more than 750,000 followers.
And separately a regional monitor and expert explains the following:
Synthetic aperture radar imagery shows a large surface slick emanating from the waters around Kharg Island, Iran’s primary crude oil export terminal responsible for roughly 90% of the country’s oil exports.
At the time of detection, multiple tankers were simultaneously loading at the Kharg Island terminal. It is not yet clear whether the spill originated from a loading operation, a vessel, subsea infrastructure, or the terminal itself.
Satellite monitoring spotted the apparent spillage…
🚨Satellites have detected a massive oil spill spreading across a vast area of the Persian Gulf around Iran’s Kharg Island.
Synthetic aperture radar imagery shows a large surface slick emanating from the waters around Kharg Island, Iran’s primary crude oil export terminal… pic.twitter.com/OcxVKCAYkQ
— Jack Prandelli (@jackprandelli) May 7, 2026
Earlier on Friday Iran’s Fars reported sporadic clashes between Iranian Armed Forces and US vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. Amid the fog of war, nothing in the way of details emerged. By evening these clashes appeared to have ceased.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei has condemned US “aggression and adventurism” but has also confirmed that Tehran is still reviewing the US proposal and is still going to respond soon.