British engineering and project management company AMEC has been awarded a remediation contract in Kuwait as part of the United Nations Compensation Committee (UNCC).
AMEC will be working with Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), with KOC acting as the managing agent and contracting entity, to remediate KOC oilfield properties damaged during the 1990-1991 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
Iraq’s retreating army torched over 600 of Kuwait’s oil wells in early 1991. The fires burned for around nine months before being extinguished, leaving behind a spill or around 22.5 million barrels of oil and an ecological and environmental catastrophe.
Kuwait was awarded $2.9 billion for environmental remediation by the UNCC in the aftermath of the Gulf War. KOC officials have put the total area damaged at 384 square kilometres. Most of the contaminated land still contains vast oil lakes, some of which are several metres deep, whcih are comprised of a combination of million of barrels of oil and oil and billions of gallons of seawater used to extinguish the oil fires.
The tender for the project was published in February, with AMEC beating completion from invited rival bidders including US firms Aecom and CH2M Hill, Australia’s WorleyParsons, and fellow Brits Buro Happold.
“We are pleased to expand our relationship with KOC by mobilising our global environmental and project management expertise to support this important project,” said Hisham Mahmoud, President of AMEC’s Environment & Infrastructure business. “We recognise the significance of this project to Kuwait and the United Nations, and are committed to its success.”
AMEC has worked in Kuwait ever since the rehabilitation of several of Kuwait’s oilfields after the 1991 Gulf War.
“I am delighted that the unique combination of our long term oil and gas presence in the country, alongside our specialist environment and infrastructure expertise has led to this award,” said Ross Gibson, Regional Director for AMEC’s Middle East & North Africa region. “We are thrilled to be able to use our global remediation skills to help our customer and Kuwait.”
According to a leaked US diplomatic cable, the contract, then valued at around $200 million, was awarded to US firm Hill International in 2009, but did not go through partly due to lobbying from failed rival bidders.
