Hydrocarbon gases from the bottom of the Red Sea are polluting the atmosphere at a rate equivalent to that of some of the major fossil fuel exporting countries.
The gases leaking from the waters that surround the resorts and ports of several countries, including Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, then mix with emissions from industrial shipping and turn into pollutants that are very harmful to human health.
The Middle East contains more than half of the world's oil and gas reserves and the intensive exploitation of fossil fuels that takes place there, and the region emits huge amounts of gaseous pollutants into the atmosphere.
But during a 2017 expedition around the Persian Gulf, researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Chemistry noticed that ethane and propane levels in the air over the North Red Sea were 40 times higher than predicted, even taking into account regional anthropogenic emissions.
The research team analyzed possible sources of gas emissions, including traffic, agriculture, combustion and the production of electricity from hydrocarbons.
They came to an unexpected conclusion: gases seep from the seabed after exiting natural underground oil and gas reservoirs.
They are then carried by streams to the surface, where they mixed with another greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide, which was emitted in large quantities by industrial ships.
The resulting gas compounds are extremely harmful to human health, according to a study published in Nature Communications.
“I have to admit that I was surprised at these results myself,” said lead study author Efstratios Bursukidis.
“We spent almost two years working on this dataset to prove with certainty that the emissions were about two kilometers below the sea surface.”
The group estimated that the ethane and propane leak rates were 'comparable in magnitude' to those of several hydrocarbon exporting countries such as the United Arab Emirates or Kuwait.
According to the study, emissions lead to the emergence of atmospheric methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
The situation is exacerbated by nitrous oxide pollution due to the large number of shipping containers passing through the north of the Red Sea, one of the busiest transport routes on Earth.
And this can only get worse as the route gets more congested.
“In the coming decades, vessel traffic through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal is expected to continue to increase with a concomitant increase in nitric oxide emissions,” Bursukidis said.
Sources: Agence France-Presse, Photo: ESA
