Kuwait oil firm declares ‘state of emergency’ after leak
- ‘No injuries, production not affected’, says spokesman; environmentalist says such incidents are a ‘recurring problem’
- Kuwait, key member of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), produces about 2.7 million barrels of oil a day
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 had 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.
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 per cent of government revenue comes from oil.