VIDEO: Kuwait declares 'state of emergency' after oil spill on land

Gulf Today Report

A sudden oil leak that did not cause injuries or obstruct production operations in Kuwait led to the declaration of a state of emergency, according to Kuwait Oil Company on Monday.

The issue of safety in oil facilities raises a lot of controversy, especially since it is not the first time that such leaks have occurred.

The company said in a statement that it had declared "a state of emergency following an oil spill in the west of the country," noting that "there were no injuries resulting from the leak and that production operations were not affected."

"We are dealing with an oil spill in the oil operations area in the west of the country, in a land area, not the sea, but it is not a residential area," company spokesman Qusai Al-Amer said in an initial statement.

He refused to disclose the exact location of the leak, pointing out that "the emergency committee is in the process of evaluating the situation to reassure people and find out the source of the leak, if it was an oil well," stressing that "there are no toxic gases."

"The state of emergency will continue until the operation is completed," he added.

The videos shared on social media show fountains of oil escaping from a pipeline on a barren land.

Kuwait, which is one of the richest Gulf countries in oil and energy resources, produces about 2.7 million barrels of oil per day, most of which are exported from the ports overlooking the waters of the Gulf.

Oil revenues account for about 90 per cent of Kuwait's income, a major member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

The Kuwait Oil Company had previously announced leakage incidents at its sites in 2016 and 2020.

In August 2017, Kuwait witnessed two oil spills, one of which was 1.6 km off the coast of the capital.

Experts estimated that the second accident, near the joint Saudi-Kuwaiti oil field in the Khafji region, saw an estimated 35,000 barrels of crude oil spill into the water.

In January 2022, two people were killed and ten others were injured following a fire in the gas liquefaction unit of the largest oil refinery in Kuwait, the Mina Al-Ahmadi refinery, south of Kuwait City.

Kuwait Oil, which was established in 1934, is affiliated with the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation and is responsible for onshore and offshore exploration activities, drilling and development of wells, in addition to exploration for crude oil and natural gas.

The Gulf witnessed an environmental crisis when the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein burned many Kuwaiti oil wells when he invaded the country in the early nineties of the last century.