Planning to rescue Kuwait's oil wells: an environmental issue

Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to review the reasons for which Saddam's regime intended to destroy and eliminate Kuwait's entire oil infrastructure before and after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The underestimation of oil wells that would be torched by Iraqi forces is also discussed in this paper.

Design/methodology/approach

To approach the scope of this paper, the intentions and the practical evidence of such sabotage are pointed out. Efforts to rescue Kuwait's oil wells in addition to planning for the expected catastrophe are highlighted. The plausible reasons that made such underestimation unclear are elaborated.

Findings

The instructions included in the Iraqi documents showed undoubtedly that the sabotage operation was not a random last‐minute attempt to destroy the oil wells, but it was a carefully supervised and well planned endeavor to completely destroy Kuwait's oil infrastructure. Owing to those efforts and planning, more than 100 oil wells were rescued throughout Kuwait. Due to such underestimation Kuwait suffered severe losses both to its oil industry and to its ecological system.

Research limitations/implications

Since the reasons for the lower estimates of oil wells, torched by Iraqi troops, to a maximum of 100‐150 wells were unclear, this paper attributes Kuwait's economic losses and environmental degradation to such underestimation and suggests more investigations on this issue.

Practical implications

Kuwait's catastrophe brought the attention to environmental concerns that should receive immediate consideration, while the scorched‐earth tactic applied in Kuwait and the resulting environmental disaster led to a positive reaction by the international community and spawned a new environmental treaty at the regional level.

Originality/value

This is the first paper that addresses the underestimation of Kuwait's oil disaster. The conflagration in Kuwait demonstrated the danger in conducting large‐scale modern combat in an environmentally fragile area, and shows how exposed all oil‐producing nations are to this type of environmental and economic disaster in the future.

Citation

Mohamed Al‐Damkhi, A. (2007), "Planning to rescue Kuwait's oil wells: an environmental issue", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 513-521. https://doi.org/10.1108/09653560710817002