Kuwait Battling Oil Spill in Persian Gulf

Emergency workers battled on Sunday to contain an oil spill near a joint Kuwaiti-Saudi oilfield in the Persian Gulf.

No official reports were available on the source or size of the leak in the waters off Kuwait's southern coast, near the joint Kuwaiti-Saudi offshore Al-Khafji Oilfield, Al-Jazeera reported.

"Emergency oil teams are struggling to put an oil spill near Kuwait's southern Ras Al-Zour area under control," said Kuwait Petroleum Corporation Spokesman Talal al-Khaled in a statement carried by the official KUNA news agency.

"Nearby beaches will be cleaned once power and water plants are secured and the oil spill is put under full control," it added.

Kuwaiti media quoted local oil experts as saying the spill originated from an old 50-kilometer pipeline from Al-Khafji.

They estimated as many as 35,000 barrels of crude oil may have leaked into the waters off Al-Zour, where Kuwait is building a massive $30 billion oil complex that includes a 615,000-barrel-per-day refinery.

Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, located south of Kuwait along the Persian Gulf coast, said the spill had not reached their waters.

Saudi Arabia put into action a "crisis management plan" and was conducting an aerial survey of its oil plants along the coast, said a statement published by the official SPA news agency.

The Kuwait Petroleum Corporation said teams from Saudi Arabian Chevron and Oil Spill Response Limited were cleaning the coastal waters. Oil and gas exports make up about 95% of Kuwait's revenues.