Determination of the oil pollution rate in southern Caspian Sea (from Tonekabon to Bandar Torkaman)

Abstract

This research was conducted to evaluate total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) in the sea water of Mazandaran and Golestan provinces situated in the southern part of the Caspian Sea, during fall 1996 to winter 1997. 330 water samples were collected from the depths of less than 5 meters and 10 meters in seven selected stations. Total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) was determined using IR instrument according to ASTM (1995), ROPME (1989) and Russian standard method (1992). As a result, the minimum and maximum TPH of water were 0.11-0.63 and 0.11-2.9 mg/l, in less than 5m depth and 0.078-0.627 and 0.083-0.648 mg/l, in meters depth respectively. The statistical analysis indicated that there was a significant ion between stations and seasons (P<0.001), but there was not any significant difference between the less than 5m and 10m depths (12<0.346). As a conclusion, this region was round to have very low oil pollution comparing to Baku region in Azarbayjan, but higher than the Mediterranean region concerning the fact that no sign of oil activities were observed in this area. Therefore, southern part of Caspian Sea has the lower pollution rate because of the low industrial sewages from coastal rivers and oil platforms.