Saudi Arabia is pressing its battle against spilled oil in the Persian Gulf.
The cleanup campaign continued amid word last week that restoration of about 1 million b/d in Iraqi oil export capacity could occur fairly quickly with an end to civil unrest and a U.N. embargo against that country.
The oil spill created when Iraq released oil from Kuwait's Sea Island terminal is moving slowly toward Iran's coast, with Iran's main export terminal at Kharg Island in its path.
Off Saudi Arabia, the main threat is from the Khafji spill, now in two sections. Much of Saudi Arabia's northern coastline has been badly polluted, but the slick has not reached Al Jubail.
Saudi Arabia has 35 skimmers and 13 vacuum tankers working on the cleanup and an extensive network of booms in place to protect water intakes to industrial plants. Middle East Economic Survey reports 300 persons are employed on Saudi cleanup and containment.
The Mina al-Bakr spill is obscured by smoke from burning oil wells in Kuwait, making tracking difficult. The oil is still in the Bubiyan Island area off Saudi Arabia.
An image released by Earth Observation Satellite Co. (Eosat), Lanham, Md., showed a spill just north of Al Jubail near Abu Ali Island. Multispectral imagery detected the spill Feb. 8, mainly intact, hugging the Saudi coast about 100 miles south of Kuwaiti terminals.
An image acquired Feb. 16 showed significant expansion of the spill to more than 40 miles in length. It had traveled 50 miles south of its Feb. 8 position.
Eosat is commercial operator of the Landsat system.
IRAQI EXPORTS
Iraq's Persian Gulf and Red Sea export terminals were badly damaged in the war, but industry sources say exports through Turkey from Iraq's northern fields may be easier to restore. If the embargo were lifted quickly, export facilities could handle a little less than 1 million b/d.
However, the situation in the northern producing areas is chaotic because Kurdish forces are trying to seize the key oil town of Kirkuk and reportedly have occupied oil facilities in the area.
Before Iraqi exports can resume from the Persian Gulf and through the IPSA pipeline system through Saudi Arabia to Yanbu on the Red Sea, the PS-1 pump station south of Zubair must be rebuilt. The unit controls flow of oil into the IPSA line and the line delivering oil to the Mina al-Bakr terminal, which before the war had an export capacity of 800,000 b/d. The terminal also was damaged.
The only facility that appears to have escaped effects of allied bombing is the K-2 pump station in northern Iraq, which would allow 800,000 b/d of Kirkuk oil to be exported through Turkey. The export line to the Mediterranean has a capacity of 1.6 million b/d.
Before the embargo, oil from southern fields was pumped to the K-2 station so the line could operate at maximum throughput.
Iraq might also be able to restore crude exports by truck through Jordan. The T1 pump station in western Iraq, the terminal for road exports, may not have been as badly damaged as some other facilities.
Four large Iraqi producing fields-North and South Rumailah, Luhais, and Zubairare also within an area occupied by allies. There were unconfirmed reports late last month that 30-40 wells in the Rumailah fields were ablaze.
WELL CONTROL EQUIPMENT
Meantime, Kuwait will rent blowout equipment from Oil Field Rental Service Co. (OFR), a unit of Enterra Corp., Houston, to combat wild wells in Kuwaiti oil fields.
The first OFR equipment likely to arrive in Kuwait will come from yards in the Middle East, notably Dubai. OFR then will send equipment to Kuwait through Houston from 34 U.S. sites. OFR also could call for rental equipment from Southeast Asia, Australia, or western Canada.
A crew from John E. Chance & Associates Inc., Lafayette, La., is using sidescan sonar to find war debris in the main shipping channels of the Kuwaiti port of Shuaiba under a subcontract let by American Dredging Co. (ADC), Camden, N.J.
Kuwait awarded a $46 million contract to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to inspect the country's roads, bridges, ports, and harbors. The corps hired ADC to help restore ship traffic to Kuwaiti ports. Chance will need about 20 days to survey and map shipping routes in a 6 mile area around Shuaiba.
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