Kuwait Oil Company’s (KOC) projects to clean-up oil fields in the southeast of the country have all commenced main treatment work, according to a senior official with knowledge of the projects.

The three contracts were awarded to South Korea’s GS Engineering & Construction, Spain’s Hera and India’s Teri in March 2012 and are worth a total of $163.7m.

“They’ve just commenced main treatment work – and the work is proceeding on schedule,” the official said.

The contractors are processing contaminated soil that has resulted from emergency releases of crude oil and other industrial liquids during operational activities.

“Over a period of time repeated spills have created huge hydrocarbon contamination that we are currently trying to clean up,” the source said.

All three projects should be complete by September 2015 if there are no delays, according to the official.

The projects were origionally due to be completed in March 2015.

The southeastern fields have been divided into three groups known as A, B and C.

Hera submitted the lowest total bid for the three deals at around $151m, but was only awarded the contract for Lot C.

• Lot A, Teri, KD18.6m ($66.7m)
• Lot B, GS Engineering & Construction, KD11.0m
• Lot C, Hera, KD16.1m

KOC is currently looking to contract companies to take on similar remediation work in larger projects, worth a total of $2bn, to clean-up hydrocarbon contamination from the Gulf war.

The extensive pollution in Iraq’s north was caused in the final stages of the war as Iraq’s retreating army lit over 600 of Kuwait’s oil wells. The fires burned for ten months before being extinguished, leaving behind a spill of around 22.5 million barrels of oil and damaging an area of 384 square kilometres.