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

Environmental Damage in Burgan Oil Field in Kuwait: History, Clean-up, and Future Policy By Abdulwahab Alsheshteri IELP Independent Research WritingLING 153 Thursday August 11, 2011 Barbara Pijan, Instructor Portland State University 1.0 Introduction…………………………………………………..3 2.0 Data Section……………………………………………...…..4 2.1 History of Gulf war…………………………………....4 2.1.1 Where is Burgan oil field?...............................4 2.1.2 When in history Sadam Hussain invaded Kuwait, how did they burn Burgan?................4 2.1.3 Explain the environmental damage……….....4 2.2 Explain the Clean-up……………………………….….5 2.2.1 Extinguishing of Kuwaiti oil fires………...…5 2.2.2 Cleaning the salty water…………………......6 2.2.3 Cleaning the soil…………………………..…7 2.3 Future Environmental Policy……………………….….8 2.3.1 The future, what is KOC future plan to keep fixing the damage, how much damage is left?...................................................8 2.3.2 What is Kuwait government environmental policy to manage all the oil fields………………………………………....9 2.3.3 Is there any regional policy, does OPEC have any environmental policy?......................................9 3.0 What is the best thing for Kuwait government to do?..............9 4.0 Reference 1.0 Introduction Now-a-days there is no need of explanation that petroleum is a potent environmental contaminant. Since beginning of 21st Century news of various ship wrecks with crude petroleum and fuel petroleum as cargo made the headlines of every new channels and newspapers constantly. These oil spills endangered the ecological balance of the sea. But in this paper we will discuss about the oil spills which occurred during the Gulf war and its environmental influence on the regions of the oil spills. It has been mentioned that during the Gulf War that is from Aug 1990 – Feb 1991, the Arabian and Persian Gulf along with the Kuwait Desert evidenced the largest oil spill ever in history. 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. 2.0 Data Section 2.1 History of Gulf war 2.1.1. Where is Burgan oil field? 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) 2.1.2. 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). 2.1.3. Explain the environmental damage. The environmental crisis resulting from the 1991 Gulf War was unprecedented. This tragedy has compounded with other impacts of the war such as major troop movement damaging the terrain to create an environmental catastrophe that includes the largest oil spill on record. Approximately 7-11 million barrels of oil were deliberately spilled into the Persian Gulf (Alam, 1993). Due to the burning and broken pipes, a thin layer of toxic oil waste spread into the topsoil of the land in and around Burgan. According to Al-Hashem (2007), “Types of contaminated soil were categorized inrelation to ground observations. The categories used were nominated as ‘‘tar mat’’, ‘‘soot’’, and ‘‘clear’’. The tarmat areas had a soil surface that had been solidified by oil, forming a layer about 1 cm thick that could be peeled off the underlying ‘‘clean’’ soil. The soot areas were foundwithin the upper layer of soil and could be 1–8 mm indepth. Contamination is, however, sometimes continuousand, at other times, discontinuous”. Oil released on purpose by Iraqi forces was totaled for about three million barrels, and it could reach four million, probably the worst oil spill on record. Furthermore, barrels that were sat on fire with many others were flowing uncontrollably but not on fire. The fires made a 15,000 km (squared) cloud of smoke and soot.Fish, sea turtles, birds and other animals got weak and a big number died. The migration of over two million birds may be threatened (Lee, 1991). 2.2 Explain the clean-up 2.2.1 Extinguishing of Kuwaiti oil fires According to Alam, for managing the crisis, four groups were divided due to the task of coping with the gulf war environmental problems. The Emergency Response Centre separated them into: Management, Planning, Science, and Operation Groups. Each group had participated in daily meetings to discuss updates (1993). The Kuwaiti Government invited non-American fire-fighting teams from other countries, for instance, France, Hungary, China, Iran, Romania and the UK. The progress made by the end of August 1991 on extinguishing Kuwaiti oil fires. Even though the total amount of extinguished oil wells by the non-American teams were less than 15% of the wells, the Hungarian team extinguished eleven wells in twenty-six days (Husain, 1993). In order to control the exploded wells, over 10,000 workers from 37 countries and fire fighting teams from 10 countries worked day and night. Every 1 million gallons capacity and lined with plastic sheet were built to provide water to kill the burning wells. 400 km of water pipeline with 150 km main feeding line were constructed to deliver 20 million gallons of water each day to Kuwaiti wells locations (Husain, 1993). 2.2.2 Cleaning the salty water The major problem which came up during the Gulf War was the oil spill at sea. It severely damaged the ecosystem of the surrounding marine life. It was a major concern because crude oil is lighter than water and floats on the surface of the water. The heavier fractions of the hydrocarbon of oily water accumulate as sewage and destroy the plant and animal life mainly dwelling at the sea bed. It also depletes the oxygen level of the surrounding due to the presence of toxic agents present in crude oil. Due to the floating fractions there always remains a possibility of fire hazards. The initial methods which were carried out to clean the salty water are by mechanically skimming the surface of the sea water, floating oil mixture, tar balls, etc. which will be collected for treatment and the reclamation of the oil. The treatments which were used in the for reclamation were mainly gravity separation method of oil and water, a combined method composed of coagulation, flocculation and sedimentation as well as sand filtration method was also applied. In this way they cleaned the salty water and reclaimed the oil. (Jashni & Saadat, n.d., pp. 1-2) 2.2.3 Cleaning the soil The oil spills in the deserts of Kuwait was also very hard to be negotiated. After initial oil clean-up programs, 95% of oil was collected and exported from the oil lakes, while the others 5% of was not removed or collected from the oil lakes. (Kostreba, 1999, p.1) The oil content from the oil lakes posed as a severe threat to human and other species. At first they did nothing to clean this 5% of the oil content from the oil lakes. This 5% was also very dangerous as there was a high risk factor that it will contaminate the ground water of the region. (Kostreba, 1999, p.1) It was a very grave issue as ground water availability is also a matter of concern in this part of the globe. After pumping out the oil lakes, KOC abandoned the area. But this choice lead to serious consequences, due to weathering the un-removed oil formed a semisolid mass and around 1.55 million tons of oil remained in the lakebed. (Kostreba, 1999, p.1) When the lakebeds became dry these dry lakebeds started eroding and caused air pollution by being suspended in the air. It was a matter of concern where the oil lakebeds were near populated areas, as due to its erosion the suspended oil particles move with air and affects ill hazards to the human health and environment. So, it was an urgent need to address this issue to minimize public health and environmental hazard. Another problem was the lack in supply of water to extinguish the oil fires. Four tanks were built it he desert to solve this problem and these wells had a capacity of 16500 gallon each. An additional seven tanks were built. Owing to low pumping ability (for the mechanic establishment) of the wells, water pond method was undertaken to address the fire problem. These water ponds were of 4x18x45 and had capacity of 300000 gallons. (KOC, 2011) A research program between the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) and Japan Petroleum Energy Center (PEC) was established in July 1994. The intention of the project was to put the foundation for the restoration of all of Kuwait’s oil-contaminated land. Three different bioremediation methods were used for cleaning the soil: land farming, windrow composting piles and static bioventing piles. The bioremediation field program took a 12-month period (Balba, 1997). Some of the ways adopted by Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research with active help from Japan Petroleum Energy Centre was self cleaning with cyanobacteria and different kinds of phytoremediation by using fungi for the areas which are far from human population. But the choice of doing nothing ultimately helped as in these left alone areas extensive growth of blue-green algae were found. These cyanobacterial mats helps in bio-degradation of the oil hydrocarbons by oxidizing them into corresponding alcoholic hydrocarbons. (Kostreba, 1999, p.1) 2.3 Future Environmental Policy 2.3.1 The future, what is KOC future plan to keep fixing the damage, how much damage is left? KOC already demonstrated their stress on environmental issues during their Spirit of the Desert and Kuwait Oasis projects. KOC is more concerned with environmental issues which are evident from their outlook of reviewing the existing EPA or Environment Protection Agency regulations and how these laws apply to KOC. They are also thinking if the law can be made more stringent. Addressing this environmental protection matter, Integrated Environmental solutions presented that consultancy services would carry out evaluation of Kuwait EPA Regulations for the Oil & Petrochemical Industry, to the representatives from various companies like KOC, other Kuwaiti companies and EPA. They wanted to determine how they can perform business according to the future Kuwaiti environmental laws and sustain the legal framework of health, safety and environment or HSE operations. They are following certain steps to maintain the HSE those are (1) to identify the Kuwait EPA articles (2) conversion of these articles to auditable protocols (3) to observe the impact of non-compliance and the cost of not complying with these EPA articles (4) To determine missing requirements and (5) Comparing Laws of Kuwait with laws of United States, while keeping the mature environmental regulations of US as base. They suggested these above mentioned steps will enable to determine the responsible party for different protocols, it will establish the enforceability of the articles which are existing and help to identify who and what is getting the impact by each of the EPA articles. (Al-Awadhi, 2002, pp.3-5) Eventually the use of sea water in extinguishing the fire led to deposition of salt and mixtures of oil, sand and salt have been formed. Animal and plant mortality owing to the oil contamination and the oil seeping across the layers of the soil to reach the fresh water aquifers have created new damages and complications in the clean up process.(Mirza, 2011) 2.3.2 What is Kuwait government environmental policy to manage all the oil fields? The survey of Environmental Laws and Regulations in Kuwait gives an indication that they have progressed in the general environment field. There were many efforts to strengthen the environmental law on national level in Kuwait, but it encountered many obstacles. But due to reluctance of judiciary system to lead the way for enforcing the present laws related to environment made the advancement inadequate. Kuwaiti government tried to prevent oil pollution in the navigable water and imposed fines on the polluters. According to Kuwaiti law The Council of the Environment can request Court to pronounce a decree to seal any polluting facility for a temporary or permanent period. Though the lack of autonomous Environmental court to review environmental laws and regulations has affected the effectiveness of the laws related to environment. (Al-Awadhi, 2002, pp.3-5) 2.3.3 Is there any regional policy, does OPEC have any environmental policy? There are regional protocols (1) regarding combating oil pollution and other harmful substances during emergency. (2) it deals with pollution of the territorial sea bed and its sub-soil including the continental shelf in context of their exploration and exploitation. (3) transportation of hazardous waste was also included in the regional protocols of environmental laws. Like other Arab countries Kuwait also lacks framework in environmental laws so it was essential to establish the ARCEL or Arab Regional Environmental Law Center in Kuwait. OPEC supports the global and regional environmental laws and protocols but does not have their own sets of environmental laws and regulations. (Al-Awadhi, 2002, p.6; Frequently Asked Questions, 2009, p.16) 3.0 What is the best thing for Kuwait government to do? The Kuwaiti Government should stress on independent environment law courts which will autonomously decide on the decree to be delivered to the polluters. Stringency in environmental law should also be incorporated to a great extent in Kuwait as it has high resource of petroleum and gas and it suggests there is high possibility of encountering environmental hazards. Kuwait also should follow the environmental policies of countries like US as these super power nations are more mature than other countries about environmental protection regulations by policy making and Kuwait should adopt their policies for better environmental regulation. In this way, Kuwait can develop a strong environmental protection framework with stringent policies and independent judicial courts for the environmental protection laws. It will help them to provide better decision for the environmental protection issues and impose stricter penalties on the polluters. 4.0 References Al-Hashem, M., Brain, P. and Omar, S. (2007). Effects of oil pollution at Kuwait’s greater Al- Burgan oil field on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon concentrations in the tissues ofthe desert lizard Acanthodactylusscutellatus and their ant prey. Retrieved on Aug 1, 2011 from: http://www.springerlink.com/content/721673g1528232w6/fulltext.pdf Ali, J. (2011). The Economic and Environmental Impact of the Gulf War on Kuwait and the Persian Gulf. Retrieved on Aug 1, 2011 from: http://www1.american.edu/ted/KUWAIT.HTM Alam, I. (1993), The 1991 Gulf War Oil Spill—Lessons from the Past and a Warning for theFuture. Retrieved on Aug 1, 2011 from: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MImg&_imagekey=B6V6N-488Y5H4-9R-1&_cdi=5819&_user=1694017&_pii=0025326X9390043J&_origin=&_coverDate=12%2F31%2F1993&_sk=999729999&view=c&wchp=dGLzVlb-zSkWW&md5=b7323ed861a2671e52f989774b0de4ee&ie=/sdarticle.pdf Al-Khamees, M. K. & A.K. Al-Ali, (2009), The Kuwaiti Digest April-June 2009, Retrieved on Aug 1, 2011 from: www.kockw.com/Publications/April%20June%202009 Al-Awadhi, B. (2002), Strengthening Environmental Law in the Arab Region, Retrieved on Aug 1, 2011 from: www.unep.org/law/Symposium/Documents/Country.../KUWAIT.doc Balba, M., Al-Daher, R., Al-Awadhi, N., Chino, H. and Tsuji, H. (1997).Bioremediation of oil-contaminated desert soil: The Kuwaiti experience. Retrieved on Aug 1, 2011 from: http://www.sciencedirect.com.proxy.lib.pdx.edu/science/article/pii/S0160412097001323 Frequently Asked Questions (2009), Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Retrieved on Aug 1, 2011 from: http://www.opec.org/opec_web/static_files_project/media/downloads/publications/FAQ.pdf Husain, T. (1993). Extinguishing of Kuwaiti oil fires — Challenges, technology, and success. Retrieved on Aug 1, 2011 from: http://www.sciencedirect.com.proxy.lib.pdx.edu/science/article/pii/1352231094903565 Jashni, K. A. & Saadat, S. (n.d.), Prevention of Sea-Water Pollution by Oily-Water Treatment, Retrieved on Aug 1, 2011 from: http://www.iransaze.com/files-for-download/maghale/saze%20daryai/Prevention%20of%20Sea-Water%20Pollution%20by%20Oily-Water%20Treatment.pdf Kostreba, L. (1999), Oil Spill Remediation Efforts in the Middle East, Student Online Journal, 4(3), 1-5 KOC (2011) Oil Fires, retrieved on August 5, 2011 from: http://www.kockw.com/Pages/About%20KOC/KOC%20History/OilFires.aspx Lee, I., Haines, A. (1991). Health costs of the Gulf war. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.proxy.lib.pdx.edu/pmc/articles/PMC1670450/pdf/bmj00138-0053.pdf Mirza, A. (2011) CORRE (TSX-V:CVR, OTCQX:CRVYF):MEED mentions CORRE as Front Runner for Kuwait Soil Remediation Projects (As Reported on April 5, 2011 in MEED), Wall Street Reporter, retrieved on August 5, 2011 from: http://www.wallstreetreporter.com/2011/04/corre-kuwait-sets-may-deadline-for-soil-remediation-deal/ Read More