An oil spill polluting part of Egypt's Red Sea coast was not caused by any of the oil platforms operating in the area, Egypt's oil minister Sameh Fahmy was quoted as saying on Friday.
Earlier this month, officials in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada discovered the oil spill and said it had polluted parts of a 20-km (12-mile) stretch of coastline including several tourist locations.
All 188 oil platforms in the Gulf of Suez area were "totally innocent of any oil spill" that had reached the coast at Hurghada, the newspaper al-Akhbar quoted Fahmy as saying.
He said he had received a technical report on the oil spill on Thursday that indicated it might have been caused by water used by an oil tanker to wash out its tanks.
The platforms include the state-run Petrogulf Misr, the one that is closest to Hurghada's shores.
Local authorities and several shipping firms have started cleaning up the contamination using machinery and solvents.
Last week Fahmy said Egypt was considering reducing the number of oil rigs operating in the Gulf of Suez after the spill was discovered.
Tourism accounts for about 11% of Egypt's gross domestic product and is a vital source of jobs and foreign currency.
