The Oil Display Centre was established by the Kuwait Oil Company to tell the story of Kuwait's petroleum industry to visitors and residents alike. At its best it offered exhibits on the geology of the Burgan field, the history of oil exploration in Kuwait, and the technology of extraction and refining — a good introduction to an industry that quite literally built the country around it.
The centre has had an uneven history of openings and closures; check locally before visiting as its status can change. When open, it draws school groups and curious visitors who want more than the drive past the oil infrastructure provides. The exhibits trace the journey from the first exploration surveys in the 1930s through the discovery at Burgan in 1938, the construction of Ahmadi, and the post-independence nationalisation that transferred control to Kuwait in the 1970s.
The Iraqi invasion of 1990 and the subsequent deliberate torching of Kuwait's oil wells by retreating Iraqi forces in 1991 occupies a particular place in this history — some 600 wells were set on fire, burning for months and creating an environmental disaster visible from space. The centre addresses this chapter and the massive international effort to extinguish the fires. That story is inseparable from Ahmadi's identity and from Kuwait's sense of itself.