Abstract
Kuwait's desert was inundated, in 1991, with massiveoil-spills from damaged well heads and from oil fires.Large volumes of seawater used for fire-fightingfreely mixed with oil and then seeped into the ground.The dissolved compounds not only contaminated soil butalso threaten to pollute groundwater. The compositionof the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in thewater-soluble fraction (WSF), in seawater, of tendifferent crude oils produced in Kuwait and Kuwaitcrude oil (export) was investigated. The resultsshowed that the composition of the WSFs variedconsiderably (ranging from 5970 μg L-1 to10494 μg L-1). On average, about 40 volatilecompounds were identified and quantified in the WSFs.Aromatics formed the bulk of the WSF of all of thecrude oils, amounting to about 90% of the total VOCs.The WSF prepared from Raudatain crude oil containedthe highest total VOCs (benzene and toluene) whilethat of Um-Ghadair contained the lowest. The WSF ofKuwait crude oil (export) was compared with that ofindividual oils and was found to contain relativelysmaller amounts of individual components and the VOCs.Relatively higher amounts of toxic VOCs in the WSF ofRaudatain crude oil has potential to impact the fonaand flora as well as potable ground water in the area.
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