Environmental Damage at Burgan Oil Field in Kuwait: History, Clean-up and Future Policy - Research Paper Example

Approximate 240 million gallons of oil spill had occurred during this Gulf War. If we observe history it will be clear that these spills were deliberately done by the Iraqi forces during invasion of Kuwait to damage Kuwaiti economy. Iraqis deliberately disposed oil in Gulfs and they destroyed the facilities of oil production, storage, etc. Oil leakage from these facilities enabled to form numerous oil lakes, these lakes were approximately 2 meters deep. Many of the oil wells were torched and the air became polluted with aerial deposition of partially combusted particles of oil, the non-combustible products of the oil fires also aggravated the pollution level to a large extent.

As, these oil spills and oil fires caused too much of environmental hazard Kuwaiti Government accordingly took various measures to control the environmental pollution. This paper will also discuss about the environmental damage, clean up measures and the future environmental policies by KOC, Kuwait Government and OPEC to manage the oil fields and develop plans for fixing the existing damages. Kuwait is located on the Persian Gulf. It has several important and productive oil fields. The largest of Kuwait’s oil fields is called Burgan.

According to Al-Hashem, “The Greater Al-Burgan oil field has an area of349.65 km2 and lies 20 kilometers to the south of KuwaitCity”. (Al-Hashem, 2007) When in history Sadam Hussain invaded Kuwait, how did they burn Burgan? Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990 and the war caused severe environmental damages to Kuwait’s oil fields. The worst damage was the burning of oil wells and fields in Burgan and Ahmadi. The explosions of the burning wells released toxic gases and unburned oil in the shape of oil-mist that was carried to distant places for about 50 km2 (Al-Hashem, 2007).

The Iraqi forces burned 789 individual Kuwaiti oil wells. The result was a disaster from both economic and ecological standpoints. Kuwait’s economy dropped instantly after the Iraqi invasion, due to Kuwait not being able to recover production after the damage to the oil wells (Ali, 2011).