The Gulf War oil spill was the result of the Gulf War that happened from 1990-1991. Iraq under Saddam Hussein started invasion and occupation of Kuwait on August 2nd, 1990.

On 23 January 1991 (30 years ago) the Iraqi forces began to spill enormous amounts of Oil into the Arabian Gulf.

Source of Spill

The main source of the spill was from the Kuwait Sea Island terminal, where the Iraqi forces opened the valves directly into the Gulf waters. The Spill was for 1 week and estimated rate of 550,000 to 590,000 barrels/day.

Other Sources of Spill was from the Super tankers near Bubiyan island and the Oil Refinery near Mina AlAhmadi.

Here are some Facts and Figures about the Oil Spill

• It is estimated that total spill was 11 million barrels of Oil.

• The spill covered an area of about 160 km by 68 km.

• The spill was 5 inch thick in some areas.

• By February 1991 about 600 Kuwaiti Oil Wells had been set on fire.

• It Toke months to put out the fires. The last burning well was extinguished in early April 1991.

• Despite the uncertainty surrounding the size of the spill, figures place it several times the size (by volume) of the Exxon Valdez oil spill making it largest oil spills in history.

• The spill caused significant economic damage to the fishing and oil industries around the Gulf.

• Fish and prawn fishing in the Gulf were halted in 1991.

• According to some sources, the spill caused a 1.5-2% loss of Kuwait’s oil reserves and a $12.3 billion to $38.4 billion loss.

Many studies concluded that the spill is responsible for environmental damage to coastline sediments and marine species and ecosystems. Considered an act of Environmental Terrorism.