Remediation of Oil Contaminated Sites in the Conflict-Affected Areas - Training Workshop in Kirkuk, Iraq

Scorched earth tactics targeting Iraq’s oil industry caused significant environmental damage in the conflict-affected areas in 2016-2017. To assist the Iraqi Government deal with this pollution legacy, UN Environment Programme (UNEP) through the Oil for Development (OFD) Programme, delivered a “hands-on” training course to assist the technical staff of the Environment and Oil Ministries implement pragmatic and cost-effective clean-up of oil-contaminated sites.  
 
This training builds on two previous OFD supported workshops on contaminated site assessment and environmental sampling held in Baghdad for experts from the Environment and Oil Ministries in January and September 2018 to characterize and evaluate the risks from oil pollution hot spots.  
 
The training was also meant to help address the findings of a rapid oil pollution mapping survey conducted in the four conflict-affected governorates of Ninewa, Salah Al-Deen, Kirkuk, and Diyala by a joint team from the Environment and Oil Ministries in October/November 2018 with technical guidance from UNEP. Around 74 polluted sites were identified in this mapping survey of which four clusters are considered of particularly high concern both in terms of scale and severity. 
 
The training course was offered under the UNEP-Government of Norway OFD partnership to enhance national capacities for improved environmental management in OfD-supported countries, including Iraq. The workshop was hosted by the Ministry of Oil’s state-owned North Oil Company (NOC) at its headquarters in the historic Baba Gurgur oil field where commercial oil reserves were first discovered in Iraq in 1927. The NOC, whose oil fields and infrastructure suffered extensive damage during the conflict, also availed the necessary equipment and resources to conduct a demonstration bioremediation trial.  
 
The Development Coordination Office of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) office in Kirkuk played a critical role in liaising with national partners and facilitating workshop preparations including the provision of logistical and security support. RSK Group, an international environmental consultancy company with offices in Basra, also provided valuable technical inputs to the workshop and field trial.