The land within and surrounding the oilfield has been scarred by dangerous remnants of war: land mines and unexploded ordnance.

Their management and removal are a priority in ensuring the safety of everybody working at Rumaila.

• More than 41,000 items of unexploded ordnance (UXO) have been removed.
• 200km² of land has been released and ready for use – an area more than two-thirds the size of Basra City.

In 2010, ROO conducted an environmental baseline impact survey on the condition of Rumaila’s land before beginning any remediation work. The survey identified 80 old unlined oil pits and basins associated with field facilities which had resulted in the land being contaminated.

Without remediation, an ongoing environmental risk to Rumaila’s biodiversity, land, air and groundwater would exist.

In the past decade, ROO has:

• remediated 3.5 million m², including 15 major sites
• recovered more than 11 million barrels of oil from oil pits and contaminated soil
• removed and replaced old and contaminated pits with new properly lined engineered pits
• responsibly disposed of non-potable produced water from degassing stations by injecting it deep underground into the Dammam reservoir.

Construction of the Rumaila Waste Centre (RWC) in 2016 enables ROO to responsibly treat and recycle its waste. In so doing, the RWC:

• reduces the demands on local landfill sites by separating what waste can be recycled and incinerating what is not required
• improves the way any hazardous waste such as industrial chemicals are safely packaged and stored
• processes and segregates more than 2,600 tonnes of waste a year. In 2020 a total of 15,160m³ of domestic and wood waste was incinerated alongside the segregation and repacking for future recycling of 340 bales of plastic bottles, 24 bales of aluminium cans, 21 bales of tin cans and 68m³ of glass.