Kuwait Oil Company declares ‘state of emergency’ after oil spill

The Kuwait Oil Company declared a “state of emergency” on Monday following an oil spill on land, but said no injuries or disruption to production had been reported.

The emergency followed an “oil leak in the west of the country”, the state-owned company said in a statement, as video posted by Kuwaiti media showed a gushing pipe surrounded by a large slick of oil.

“No injuries have occurred as a result of the leak and production has not been affected,” company spokesman Qusai al-Amer was quoted as saying, adding that no toxic fumes have been reported.

The leak “occurred on land but not in a residential area”, he later told AFP.

Teams have been dispatched to determine the source of the leak and contain the incident, Al-Amer said, declining to give the spill’s exact location.

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Kuwait’s Al Rai newspaper released a video on Twitter showing a pipe spewing large amounts of oil onto barren land. AFP could not independently verify the footage.

Kuwait is a major oil-producing country where nearly 90 percent of government revenues come from oil.

The key member within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is currently producing about 2.7 million barrels per day.

The Kuwait Oil Company has previously reported oil leaks in its fields in 2020 and 2016.

In 2017, Kuwaiti authorities reported two slicks off the Gulf’s state’s shores over the span of a few days.