What happened?In the first days of the Gulf War in 1991, Iraqi military forces opened the valves at the Sea Island oil terminal in Kuwait, releasing vast amounts of crude oil into the Persian Gulf. The spill, which began on January 21, consisted of up to eight million barrels (between 1,360,000 and 1,500,000 tons) or 240 million gallons, making it the largest in history.
|
humansSaddam Hussein felt smothered, and unable to find funding for his economy to repay the other Arab states for Iraq's previous war with Iran. Some Arab rich states were unwilling to provide help to Iraq again, and many were complaining about Iraq's inability to repay its debts. The only way for Iraq to obtain revenue was through oil exports. The most expansive damage was that inflicted upon the oil installations. Also, Saudi Arabia incurred costs form the conflict on its border town of Khafji. Overall, the most costly damage was the environmental disaster caused by the oil slicks, which cost more the $700 million to clean-up. Immediately following the invasion of Kuwait, oil prices rose from under $20 per barrel to over $30 per barrel in the spot market. From 1991-1992, Kuwait's oil industry severely deteriorated and suffered a massive drops in production due the destruction of their oil wells. Yet, from 1993-1995, Kuwait's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased as a result of its growing oil industry.
|
Environmental Clean upBecause of the war, clean-up was delayed, but an international effort did eventually get underway. Using smart bombs, Coalition forces were able to seal the open pipelines at the Al Ahmadi facility, and American and Dutch workers built ponds in the desert to store the oil they pumped from the water. Booms and skimmers were used to keep the oil away from the desalination plants, which provided drinking water to residents in the area. In the end, the spill was not as catastrophic as initially feared: roughly half the oil evaporated, two to three million barrels washed ashore and a million barrels were recovered. Moreover, it has been concluded that the Gulf will recover from the oil spills, but it will be different after the recovery. Moreover, it may take decades for ecosystems to recover. The impact of the Gulf War oil spill on these various segments of the environment will be known for a long time.
|