It was the worst oil spill ever. And it happened in the Persian Gulf, fewer than 20 years ago. What clues does the 1991 Gulf War oil spill hold for the recovery from the continuing blowout of BP’s Gulf well?
On January 22, Iraqi soldiers occupying Kuwait began opening valves at the Sea Island oil terminal. Up to 11 million barrels of oil poured into the Gulf, compared with between 2.8-4.8 million barrels from BP’s well.
Clean-up operations were impossible at first due to continuing fighting and the risk of mines. But eventually 1.5 million barrels of it were skimmed up by Saudi ships and winds drove the rest southwards until it beached along the Kuwaiti and Saudi coast.
The initial impact was devastating with calm salt marshes suffering the most, but recovery was in places encouraging.
Cuba has promised the Roman Catholic Church it will free 52 political prisoners, slashing the number held by nearly a third in what would be the communist-led island’s largest release of dissidents since Pope John Paul II visited in 1998.
