The Persian Gulf War Oil Spill (1991)

One of the biggest oil leaks in history occurred as a result of the Gulf War in 1991, often known as the Persian Gulf oil spill or Gulf War oil spill. Iraqi soldiers allegedly started pouring oil into the Persian Gulf in January 1991 in order to thwart a U.S. coalition-led water landing on their beaches. Although initial estimates were fairly high, the leak probably involved 4,000,000 US barrels (480,000 m3). In the months that followed the disaster, the majority of cleanup efforts were concentrated on retrieving oil, while Saudi Arabia's heavily impacted beaches saw relatively little cleaning.

The spill will not have long-term environmental effects, according to a 1993 study. However, other studies since 1991 have reached the opposite conclusion, contending that the spill has harmed marine animals, ecosystems, and coastal sediments. The leak, which was regarded as an act of environmental terrorism, was a contentious political decision with consequences for the wider Gulf War and short-term harm to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Most cleanup efforts after the spill focused on recovering the oil by skimming it off the water's surface. Hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil are thought to have been recovered by April 1991. However, the ongoing Gulf War, a lack of funding, inadequate equipment, and other factors made the cleanup process difficult. Very little cleanup was done on Saudi Arabia's beaches as a result of these obstructions and the fact that the majority of cleanup efforts were directed at recovering oil. Ken Wells of the Wall Street Journal reported that an estimated 375 miles (604 km) of shoreline were still covered in oil 14 months after the spill. Environmentalist groups worried about the long-term effects of the oil attacked the Saudi government for failing to pay attention to the country's beaches and other sensitive environments, such as mangrove forests and marshes.

When: 1991
Where: Persian Gulf
Oil spilt: 240 million gallons