• Soil Assessment in South and North Kuwait Oil Fields: A Baseline Study

    Dhari Al-Anjari1, Aisha Al-Baroud2 and Sherifah Al-Hashash3
    Kuwait Oil Company, Ahmadi, Kuwait.

    Abstract:

    Kuwait’s primary oil-field sectors in North Kuwait (NK) and South Kuwait (SK) suffered extensive soil contamination and physical disturbance during the 1990–1991 Gulf War. Although hydrocarbon impacts have declined significantly over the past three decades, persistent soil chemical alterations continue to limit plant establishment in these arid ecosystems. Soil properties comprise inherent qualities determined by parent material, climate and biological factors, and dynamic qualities that respond to management. This study evaluated dynamic soil properties across 35 monitoring plots in NK and SK during the winter and summer 2024 campaigns to establish a baseline for monitoring and identify specific soil limitations to revegetation. Plots represented five site categories: reference, control, revegetation, effluent-pit control, and effluent-pit revegetation. Utilizing USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) & Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) protocols, dynamic soil health was evaluated via Electrical Conductivity (ECₑ), Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR), Chloride (Cl⁻), Organic Matter (OM) and Saturated Infiltration Rate, with group and seasonal variations analysed through non-parametric tests.

    Results reveal that SK effluent-pit plots are chemically and physically distinct; most are moderately to strongly saline, and exceed the sodicity threshold, with elevated chloride levels imposing severe ionic stress on establishing vegetation. Elevated OM may partly reflect residual petroleum-derived carbon rather than solely biological recovery, while higher infiltration rates may reflect physical disturbance associated from past remediation. Residual salinity, sodicity, chloride toxicity, and physical soil disruption represent the primary bottlenecks to successful revegetation. These outcomes emphasize the necessity of tailored site management and continuous long-term surveillance to track soil recovery and guide effective ecological restoration.

    Key words: Kuwait oil fields; Soil properties; Baseline monitoring; Revegetation.

    Pages: 1 – 12 | Full PDF Paper