ABSTRACT
Over the past decades, the oil industry has grown enormously, resulting in a considerable number of island's oil and gas fields being fully developed.
The offshore activities have been boosted more as inland areas been fully exploited to meet the increasing world's demand on Oil. This increase in offshore activities has resulted in enormous quantities of petroleum and its products being transported by sea around the globe everyday posing more threat to the Marine Environment.
Over 30% of all oil carried by ships is produced in this region. It is exported through a narrow bottle-neck passage, "Straight of Hormuz" creating a continuous heavy traffic that increases the daily risk potential for ships collision, grounding or explosion that threaten the marine environment and the economy of the coastal states, should a major oil spill occured anytime. The paper reviews some major spills in the area and the action taken by the responsible authorities.
The high risk potential of pollution by oil or any other harmful substances in the Arabian Gulf always exists and the need for a competent national and regional bodies was felt necessary to co-ordinate efforts in combating or mitigating marine oil pollution. The paper reviews and discusses the status of such bodies and concludes with an emphasis on strengthening them.
