State-owned upstream operator Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) is preparing to award a contract to clean between 200,000 and 300,000 square metres of contaminated soil to a company that will use bioremediation techniques.

More than three companies submitted bids for the contract, expected to be worth more than $40m, in July 2017, according to one source.

The contract forms part of the $2.9bn Kuwait Environmental Remediation Project (KERP), which aims to clean up pollution from the First Gulf War.

Iraq’s retreating army torched more than 600 oil wells in 1991.

The fires burned for 10 months before being extinguished, leaving behind about 22.5 million barrels of spilled oil and damaging an area spanning 384 square kilometres.

In December 2005, the UN Compensation Commission (UNCC) awarded Kuwait $2.9bn in compensation to fund KERP.

Initially, Kuwait planned to bury soil with high levels of contamination (above 18 per cent oil) in 16 giant landfills.

Surveys found there was about 26 million cubic metres of this sludge that needs to be cleared.

Fears these large toxic landfills will cause problems for future generations prompted Kuwait to conduct studies into whether using new technologies such as bioremediation to break down the crude was financially viable.

It is thought that using bioremediation dramatically reduces the number of landfills needed.

Bioremediation is the use of either naturally occurring or deliberately introduced microorganisms to consume and break down environmental pollutants in order to clean a polluted site.