KUWAIT: Kuwait has shut two small northern oilfields near its border with Iraq as a security precaution ahead of any US-led war on Baghdad, an oil company official said yesterday.
Mr Badr Zwyer, a spokesman for Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), told Reuters the Abdali and Ratqa fields, producing a total of 25,000 barrels per day (bpd), had been closed because they were located in a "risky" area near Iraq.
"Abdali and Ratqa have been closed as a security measure," he said.
The move is part of Kuwait's efforts to bolster security against any Iraqi reprisals if tens of thousands of US troops training in Kuwait's desert launch a war on Baghdad.
The oil producer hopes to keep its crude output unchanged by boosting supplies from its main fields in the south of the country, said Mr Zwyer.
Kuwait has limited spare production capacity. Oil officials have said Kuwait plans to keep crude flowing to its international customers even if Iraq attacks the tiny country again in a new Gulf war.
Northern fields normally produce about 400,000 bpd of crude oil, while southern installations pump the bulk of Kuwait's production of around two million bpd.
Underscoring concerns that Iraq may strike Kuwait if war erupts, the authorities will finish turning the northern half of the country into a military zone this week, a defence ministry spokesman told Reuters.
The move is also designed to boost security for US troops stationed in the north. Fatal attacks on Americans have raised questions about internal security in Kuwait, a staunch US ally.
The Kuwait Oil Company has also begun moving workers out of oil installations in the north and dismantling oil rigs and moving them to the south.
In the south, oil workers have been put on an emergency plan to prepare for war. "We are conducting evacuation drills and we are learning how to use gas masks," said Mr Zwyer.
Iraqi troops burned 700 Kuwaiti oil wells in the 1991 Gulf war.
The controversial Ratqa field, which is a southern extension of Iraq's giant Rumaila field, stirs up memories of Baghdad's lightning invasion of Kuwait in 1990. In the weeks before the occupation, Baghdad accused Kuwait of stealing billions of dollars worth of its Rumaila oil through horizontal drilling.
After the Gulf war, UN demarcation put all Ratqa wells within Kuwaiti territory.
Meanwhile, Oman said yesterday it would not join any war against Iraq, insisting that a peaceful solution must be found.
Oman, an ally of the US, was echoing a statement from Sunday's emergency Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo which said Arab states should deny any support for military action against Iraq.
The US has forces stationed in Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Kuwait is expected to be the launchpad for any US war. US forces in Bahrain and Qatar are expected to participate in any fighting.