It will take about a week more for authorities to clean-up the shores in southern Kuwait that have been contaminated by the oil spill that took place on August 12th , the Gulf state’s oil minister has said.
Essam al-Marzouq has however said that workers have contained the crude oil spill in the southern waters in the Gulf and that the cleaning up operation is underway, Reuters ahs reported citing the state news agency KUNA.
Marzouq has also claimed that electricity and water production was continuing at full capacity at the Al-Zour North and Al-Zour South plants, which had not been affected.
Kuwait said on Saturday that various bodies were investigating the incident, but did not provide a magnitude of the spill, near Kuwait’s southern Ras al-Zour area, nor its cause.
Ras al-Zour is where Kuwait National Petroleum Co is building the Middle East’s largest oil refinery, with a processing capacity of 615,000 barrels per day and $11.5bn worth of contracts.
He said since the oil spots on the shores were reported, the ministries of oil and electricity, Saudi Chevron and other government agencies had been coordinating to tackle the pollution.
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait jointly operate fields in a shared area known as the Neutral Zone. Saudi Chevron operates the onshore Wafra field on behalf of Saudi Arabia.
The Khafji Joint Operations, a joint venture between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, said on Sunday its facilities were safe and clear of a spill ‘which (media) reports said was due to an oil tanker’.
The Khafji oilfield was shut in October 2014 for environmental reasons and Wafra has been shut since May 2015 due to operating difficulties.
