Gulf War oil spill

The oil spill in the Persian Gulf in 1991 is considered as a result of the Second Gulf War as one of the largest maritime oil spills. This mainly affected southern Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Nearly one billion liters of crude oil (about 860,000 tons ) were released, including several tankers and oil terminals, and arrived in the Gulf off the coast of Kuwait. In particular, the salt marshes of the Arabian coast are still severely damaged.

The regeneration is considered to be a process of several decades duration.

Causes

On January 21, 1991, when Iraqi soldiers opened the valves at the Sea- Iceland - oil terminal, leaving the oil from several tankers into the Persian Gulf. The apparent strategic goal was to prevent the potential landing of the United States Marine Corps. Immediately following reports from Baghdad reported that U.S. air attacks were the cause of the leakage of oil from two tankers. Coalition troops found that the main source of the oil is the Sea- Iceland - terminal in Kuwait. Air raids by the United States Air Force destroyed on January 26, 1991 pipelines to prevent further spillage of oil into the Persian Gulf.

The oil migrated south and landed on the north coast of Saudi Arabia, where it damaged the fragile intertidal zones and mangrove forests and destroying wildlife habitats.

There were still other active sources of the oil: a damaged Kuwaiti oil refinery and several tanker near Mina Al Ahmadi, tankers near the island of Bubiyan and the Iraqi Mina Al Bakr oil terminal.