Yes, this area is close to Jordan, indeed the latest news stories say that the oil could spill over the border, if it spreads. They are attempting to contain it.
As you say, every oil spill is reported as a unique disaster. However, oil is a natural product, and will naturally dissipate, over time.
This oil spill is now said to be 5 million litres, or more, and the clean up may take years. There is no talk of sabotage, so probably my suspicion is unfounded. It is reported that the pipeline was undergoing maintenance. The engineers doing that work need their heads read, IMO.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4602057,00.html
Sounds like a lot of oil doesn’t it. It is, but it’s not quite what they’re trying to frame it as being. Note how they list it in liters? While that is a good measure for Europe, it sounds a lot less if you list it in gallons.
5 million liters is 1.25 million gallons.
1.25 million gallons is 3.84 acre feet of oil.
That is a very small amount of oil in the overall scheme of things.
Yes it’s a big mess. No, it’s not that big a deal.
Not trying to give you a hard time at all here.
There is probably good cause to give the engineers a good lecture. I’m not sure exactly what happened.