Gulf War oil burning
Gulf War oil burning refers to the extensive environmental disaster that occurred between January and November 1991, when retreating Iraqi forces set fire to over five hundred oil wells in Kuwait. This catastrophic event resulted in the release of approximately 800 million liters of oil daily, severely polluting the surrounding countryside and threatening water supplies in Kuwait City. The oil spills created large lakes of crude oil, which not only contaminated the soil and vegetation but also posed significant risks to local wildlife, including endangered species like sea cows and hawksbill turtles.
In addition to soil and water pollution, the ignited oil wells emitted toxic gases that degraded air quality across the region, leading to increased respiratory illnesses among vulnerable populations. The smoke from the fires even affected regions far beyond the immediate area, extending as far as Turkey and parts of Eastern Europe, contributing to health concerns and environmental degradation. Cleanup operations were initiated to extinguish the fires and contain the oil slick, employing various techniques such as cooling the wells and using oil-skimming ships.
The aftermath of this disaster has raised ongoing concerns about long-term ecological impacts on the Persian Gulf, which is known for its rich biodiversity and significant oil reserves. The effects of the oil fires and spills may take years or even decades for marine life and ecosystems to fully recover.
Gulf War oil burning
THE EVENT: Fires started in Kuwait oil fields by retreating Iraqi soldiers
DATES: January-November, 1991
When Iraqi armed forces damaged an oil pipeline and set fire to more than five hundred oil wells, they began what became the worst oil-field disaster in history.
The Persian Gulf is a shallow, northwest-trending body of water that covers an area of about 260,000 square kilometers (100,400 square miles). The Gulf is actually a large bay about 800 kilometers (500 miles) long, 200 kilometers (125 miles) wide, and 90 meters (300 feet) deep at the deepest point. It is bordered by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. The Shatt-al-Arab, a river formed by the merging of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, has created a combined river and delta region at the head of the Persian Gulf that covers more than 3,200 square kilometers (1,235 square miles).
The Persian Gulf is teeming with wildlife. The coastal mangrove swamps and coral reefs provide habitats for birds and fish. Hundreds of species of fish, including mackerel, snapper, and mullet, live in the region and feed on the abundant algae. Wading birds such as shanks and sand plovers feed along the coastal mudflats. Also, valuable crustaceans such as prawn and shrimp are farmed along the Persian Gulf’s shores.
The region holds more than one-half of the world’s proven reserves of oil and natural gas. The Persian Gulf also provides the world’s major shipping lanes for oil tanker traffic. It has been estimated that some 40 million liters (10 million gallons) of oil spills or leaks into Persian Gulf waters each year. The results of these oil releases are usually absorbed by the without significant ecological damage. However, in January, 1991, the area was hit by an environmental disaster in the form of the Persian Gulf War.
On August 2, 1990, Iraqi forces invaded the small, oil-rich neighboring nation of Kuwait. On November 29, 1990, the United Nations voted to permit the use of force to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait. On January 16, 1991, air attacks on Iraqi targets began, followed on February 23 with a ground attack against Iraq by a coalition of forces from twenty-eight countries, including the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Great Britain.
Soil and Water Pollution
During the ground war, which lasted only one hundred hours, Iraqi soldiers departing from Kuwait damaged an oil pipeline and set fire to more than five hundred Kuwaiti oil wells. These damaged wells poured hundreds of thousands of liters of oil into the surrounding countryside, forming large lakes up to 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) long and nearly 1 meter (3.28 feet) deep. More than 800 million liters (211 million gallons) of oil issued from the damaged wells each day. The spilled oil threatened to pollute the water supply of Kuwait City and other inhabited areas, and the contaminated soil and vegetation threatened to harm wildlife. Soil is adversely affected by the oily mist from such spills, as the mist forms a thin film over the topsoil and reduces the amount of oxygen and water that can penetrate the soil profile. This seal reduces the activity of a number of microbes and earthworms that help to keep the soil fertile.
Because currents in the upper Persian Gulf generally move counterclockwise around the bay, a thick oil slick spread northwest to southeast along the western coast from disrupted oil terminals, pipelines, and individual wells in the vicinity of Kuwait City to the lower part of Saudi Arabia; a thin oil film spread from the coastal region to the middle of the upper Persian Gulf. The colossal oil slick threatened the entire of the Persian Gulf. It resulted in the deaths of some twenty thousand birds, including flamingos, as the oil soaked their feathers and caused them to drown or die from exposure. The Persian Gulf’s populations of sea cows (dugongs), dolphins, and green turtles were at risk, as were the endangered hawksbill turtles that lay eggs on the local islands. Although many scientists believe that most marine life requires only three years to recover from the effects of to crude oil, marine life exposed to refined oil, especially in enclosed areas such as the Persian Gulf, may require ten years or longer to recover.
Air Pollution
A number of the wells that were ignited released poisonous gases into the air that endangered people (including military personnel) and wildlife. The released by the fires contained noxious gases such as deadly carbon monoxide and sulfuric acid. The sky was darkened by clouds of toxic black smoke, causing temperatures to drop 5.5 degrees Celsius (10 degrees Fahrenheit) lower than normal.
The Burgan Oil Refinery complex south of Kuwait City was devastated. Most of the damage occurred within an 800-kilometer (500-mile) range that included most of Iran, Iraq, and Kuwait. Soot and acid rain clouds extended nearly 1,920 kilometers (1,200 miles) away from the sabotaged oil fields. In March 1991, The New York Times reported that the “rained on Turkey and reached the western shore of the Black Sea, touching Bulgaria, Romania, and the southern Soviet Union, becoming more prevalent over Afghanistan and Pakistan.” The newspaper also indicated that the toxic clouds resulted in a significant increase in respiratory diseases among the elderly and the very young. In Oil Spills (1993) Jane Walker reports that many cattle and sheep “died in Kuwait either from breathing oil droplets in the air, or from eating oil-covered grass.”
Cleanup
The cleanup operation was undertaken in two phases: extinguishing the burning wells and controlling the oil slick. Several professional firefighting groups were called upon to extinguish the oil-field fires; the process took less than one year. Among the techniques used to combat the fires were cooling the well equipment with water, removing the well debris, cutting off oxygen to the fires by blowing flames out with explosives (usually dynamite), capping well heads with stingers (plugs), and attaching new valve assemblies to shut off the flow of oil.
The main technique used to confine and recover oil from the waters of the Persian Gulf was skimming. Oil-skimming ships scraped the greasy layer off the water’s surface, recovering between 20,000 and 30,000 barrels (about 3 to 5 million liters) of oil per day. The Saudi Arabian national oil company, Saudi Aramco, placed about 40 kilometers (25 miles) of floating booms along the periphery of the spill and sent more than twenty oil-recovery craft to the area.
Bibliography
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Browning, K. A., et al. “Environmental Effects from Burning Oil Wells in Kuwait.” Nature, May 30, 1991, 363-367.
Falola, Toyin, and Ann Genova. “Environmental Concerns.” In The Politics of the Global Oil Industry: An Introduction. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2005.
Hawley, T. M. Against the Fires of Hell: The Environmental Disaster of the Gulf War. Orlando, Fla.: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992.
Hobbs, Peter V., and Lawrence F. Radke. “Airborne Studies of the Smoke from the Kuwait Oil Fires.” Science 256 (March 26, 1993): 987-991.
Horgan, John. “Burning Questions: Scientists Launch Studies of Kuwait’s Oil Fires.” Scientific American, July 1991, 17-22.
"Oil Well Fires During Gulf War." US Department of Veterans' Affairs, 12 Oct. 2023, www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/gulfwar/sources/oil-well-fires.asp. Accessed 17 July 2024.