Burgan oil field

The Burgan field is an oil field in the desert of southeastern Kuwait, on the coast of the Persian Gulf. The name can also mean Greater Burgan, a group of three closely spaced fields: Burgan itself, plus the smaller Magwa and Ahmadi. Greater Burgan is the largest sandstone oil field in the world and the second-largest oil field of any kind, after Ghawar in Saudi Arabia.

Together the three fields cover about 1,000 square kilometres, and Burgan alone covers about 500. In 2010 the head of the Kuwait Oil Company said it produced half of Kuwait's oil. Exact numbers on reserves are uncertain, because data are described as kept secret. The globe marks it as an oil-field site in the Kuwaiti desert.

A very old oil seep

Oil has been known here for a very long time. A natural seep of tar reached the surface, and tar-like material on a reed boat found in northern Kuwait, dated to about 5000 BC, has been traced back to it.

The oil deep underground was discovered in February 1938. The Kuwait Oil Company, owned by US and UK companies, began commercial production in 1946.

What is underground

The field is an oval dome of rock with many cracks, called faults, running outward like spokes. Most of the oil sits in rock layers from the Cretaceous period, including sandstone and limestone units. Over the years, water was pushed in to sweep out the second and third sand layers.

Deeper layers of limestone from the Cretaceous and Jurassic periods also hold oil, but they have not been as productive.

Production and the 1991 fires

Production capacity was 1.7 million barrels a day in 2005, down from a high of 2.4 million barrels a day in 1972. Estimates of the total oil that can be recovered range from 66 to 75 billion barrels. In 2013 it was the fourth most productive oil field in the world.

In 1991, during the Gulf War, retreating Iraqi soldiers set the field on fire. Smoke plumes were about 50 kilometres wide and 2.5 kilometres thick. Red Adair's company put out 117 burning wells and the Canadian company Safety Boss put out 180.

On the globe

The model shows oil pumps and tanks spread across the flat Kuwaiti desert.