In this paper, a theoretical and experimental analysis of polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) architectures is undertaken for sea oil slick observation purposes. Reference is made to the conventional full-polarimetric (FP) SAR that is here contrasted with new-generation polarimetric SAR architectures, known as compact-polarimetric (CP) SAR. Two CP modes are considered, i.e., the hybrid-polarity and pi/4 modes, whose measurements are emulated from actual L-and C-band FP SAR data. Polarimetric sea surface scattering is predicted according to an extended version of the Bragg scattering model (X-Bragg) in order to point out the differences exhibited between FP and CP SAR architectures and among CP SAR modes. Theoretical predictions are then contrasted with experiments undertaken on actual polarimetric SAR data collected over well-known oil slicks and weak-damping surfactants. Results confirm model prediction, showing that differences mainly apply when polarimetric features are estimated over slick-free sea surface using different SAR architectures, with the pi/4 mode behaving closer to FP SAR. Although CP SAR architectures measure only a subset of the FP information content, they represent an interesting operational alternative for both detecting oil slicks and discriminating them from weak-damping surfactants.