Azerbaijan, Baku, May 1/Trend M. Moezzi/
Every year, approximately 1.2 million barrels of oil are discharged into the Persian Gulf, damaging its sea life and eco-system.
The figure is small when considering the nearly five billion barrels of oil annually exported through the Persian Gulf, Abdol-Reza Karbasi, deputy head of marine environment at Iran's Department of Environment, said.
Because new oil tankers with systems that confine their ballast waters have been put into service since the estimate was issued in 2000, likely the discharge has been reduced, Mr. Karbasi said.
In recent years, to avoid transporting invasive species, most oil tankers that don't have new ballast water systems, empty their water every 50 kilometers.
Iran's Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) is responsible for fighting oil pollution. It is to place 14 ballast water receiving machines in the Persian Gulf by 2014.