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Oil Field Fire Feared in Iraq Should Hussein Lose
Aired January 02, 2003 - 14:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Could this happen again? Hundreds of oil fields set ablaze by the Iraqis.
CNN's Ryan Chilcote returns to Kuwait and the scene of the 1991 disaster.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kuwait 1991. Acting on orders from Saddam Hussein, his henchmen torched more than 700 oil wells as they retreat to Baghdad.
Over the next seven months, more than a billion barrels of oil went up into flames. And Kuwait and much of the Persian Gulf was shrouded in a poisonous smoke.
Day vanished into night, black rain fell from the sky and a vast network of lakes was born, lakes of oil as deep as six feet.
Saddam also poured ten million barrels of oil into the sea. Thousands of birds perished, and the people of the Persian Gulf changed their diets.
DR. MESHAL A. AL-MESHAN, KUWAIT ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION AGENCY: They did not eat fish in the first three or four years, in '91, '92 or until '94. Because you can smell the oil in the fish easily; it comes out easily. And also, when you cut the fish, you find a lot of oil inside.
CHILCOTE: This was a gathering center, a place where oil is separated from gas. And as you can see, it's been completely destroyed, the Kuwaitis claim, by Iraqi forces as they retreated from Kuwait.
It's something that Saddam could do his own oil fields in Iraq, unleashing an environmental and economic catastrophe that has all the potential to be even greater than this one.
AHMED ALARBEED, CHAIRMAN, KUWAIT OIL COMPANY: Of course. I mean, he did this one time. I expect him to do it again. This is, you know, he is the man that you expect the unexpected. And as long as he did it for Kuwait, he would do it with other parts, even if it is for his own oil fields.
CHILCOTE: Kuwait's Burgan oil field, the second largest in the world, was nearly completely destroyed in a matter of months.
But with the second largest reserves in the world, Iraq simply has more fuel for the fire and has potentially double the trouble.
CLYDE KINSEL, PRIDE INTERNATIONAL: You look around, everything is flat. The oil had just kind of spread all over the ground. And it was just messy to get into.
But in northern Iraq, things could be a lot more rough, a lot harder to get equipment and personnel into these places to do an adequate job.
CHILCOTE: In the event of war, some environmentalists are calling on the U.S. military to secure Iraq's oil fields as quickly as possible to preempt what they see as a possible environmental crime.
AL-MESHAM: If the situation is not -- follows closely what happened in Kuwait and the oil fields in Iraq will get burnt for longer time, for months or years, I think the whole world will suffer from that.
CHILCOTE: Environmentalists say it would be best if there was no war at all, but if it's going to happen, we need to be prepared for the worst, like Kuwait 1991.
Ryan Chilcote, CNN, Kuwait.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 2, 2003 - 14:17 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Could this happen again? Hundreds of oil fields set ablaze by the Iraqis.
CNN's Ryan Chilcote returns to Kuwait and the scene of the 1991 disaster.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kuwait 1991. Acting on orders from Saddam Hussein, his henchmen torched more than 700 oil wells as they retreat to Baghdad.
Over the next seven months, more than a billion barrels of oil went up into flames. And Kuwait and much of the Persian Gulf was shrouded in a poisonous smoke.
Day vanished into night, black rain fell from the sky and a vast network of lakes was born, lakes of oil as deep as six feet.
Saddam also poured ten million barrels of oil into the sea. Thousands of birds perished, and the people of the Persian Gulf changed their diets.
DR. MESHAL A. AL-MESHAN, KUWAIT ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION AGENCY: They did not eat fish in the first three or four years, in '91, '92 or until '94. Because you can smell the oil in the fish easily; it comes out easily. And also, when you cut the fish, you find a lot of oil inside.
CHILCOTE: This was a gathering center, a place where oil is separated from gas. And as you can see, it's been completely destroyed, the Kuwaitis claim, by Iraqi forces as they retreated from Kuwait.
It's something that Saddam could do his own oil fields in Iraq, unleashing an environmental and economic catastrophe that has all the potential to be even greater than this one.
AHMED ALARBEED, CHAIRMAN, KUWAIT OIL COMPANY: Of course. I mean, he did this one time. I expect him to do it again. This is, you know, he is the man that you expect the unexpected. And as long as he did it for Kuwait, he would do it with other parts, even if it is for his own oil fields.
CHILCOTE: Kuwait's Burgan oil field, the second largest in the world, was nearly completely destroyed in a matter of months.
But with the second largest reserves in the world, Iraq simply has more fuel for the fire and has potentially double the trouble.
CLYDE KINSEL, PRIDE INTERNATIONAL: You look around, everything is flat. The oil had just kind of spread all over the ground. And it was just messy to get into.
But in northern Iraq, things could be a lot more rough, a lot harder to get equipment and personnel into these places to do an adequate job.
CHILCOTE: In the event of war, some environmentalists are calling on the U.S. military to secure Iraq's oil fields as quickly as possible to preempt what they see as a possible environmental crime.
AL-MESHAM: If the situation is not -- follows closely what happened in Kuwait and the oil fields in Iraq will get burnt for longer time, for months or years, I think the whole world will suffer from that.
CHILCOTE: Environmentalists say it would be best if there was no war at all, but if it's going to happen, we need to be prepared for the worst, like Kuwait 1991.
Ryan Chilcote, CNN, Kuwait.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
