Chemical Warfare

Large quantities of petroleum are often spilled at sea during warfare, mostly through the shelling of tankers or facilities such as offshore production platforms. During the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s and the brief Gulf War of 1991-1992, oil spills were deliberately used to gain tactical advantage, as well as inflicting economic damages on the postwar economy.

The world's all-time largest oceanic spill of petroleum occurred during the Gulf War, when the Iraqi military deliberately released almost 1.0 million tons (907,441 tonnes) of crude oil into the Persian Gulf from several tankers and an offshore facility for loading tankers. In part, the oil was spilled to establish a defensive barrier against an amphibious counter-invasion of Kuwait by coalition forces. Presumably, if the immense quantities of spilled petroleum could have been ignited, the floating inferno might have provided an effective barrier to a seaborne invasion. The spilled oil might also have created some military advantage by contaminating the seawater intakes of Saudi Arabian desalination plants, which supply most of that nation's fresh water and, therefore, have great strategic value.

Another view is that this immense spillage of petroleum into the ocean was simply intended to wreak economic and ecological havoc. Certainly, there was no other reason for the even larger spillages that were deliberately caused when Iraqi forces sabotaged and ignited the wellheads of 788 Kuwaiti oil wells on land. This act caused enormous releases of petroleum and combustion residues to the land and air for the following year. Although the wells were capped, there will be lingering pollution of the land for many decades.