Kuwait Oil Fire Fighters Prepare To Tackle Rumaila Blazes
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
KUWAIT CITY -- A 20-strong oil firefighting team from Kuwait is on its border with Iraq, ready to enter Iraq's largest oil field to help extinguish burning oil wells.
The team is to tackle a number of blazing wellheads in the Rumaila field at the request of the U.S government, Kuwait's official oil sector spokesman, Sheikh Talal Al Sabah, said Sunday.
"They're all geared up to help," he said of the team, which played an integral part in dousing oil fires in Kuwait after the Emirate's liberation from Iraqi control in 1991.
Sheikh Talal said the fires weren't from oil trench defenses ignited by Iraqis and cited media reports of seven to nine burning wells in the Rumaila fields.
Kuwait, he added, wanted to help protect the environment and preserve Iraq's precious economic resources.
Staff from Boots and Coots International Well Control Inc. (WEL ), the Houston-based well-control specialists, were also set to contribute to the firefighting efforts, Sheikh Talal said.
Shares in financially hobbled Boots & Coots jumped more than 300% in the U.S. earlier this week, partly as investors expected it to land a contract to help fight oil well fires. It announced last month that a lender had presented to the company's board a restructure proposal that included a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
Separately, Sheikh Talal said once the uncertainty cleared, Kuwait would reduce its current oil production in discussion with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Kuwait, Sheikh Talal said Saturday, is pumping some 2.5 million barrels of crude oil a day. That is above its assumed maximum capacity of 2.4 million b/d and against its OPEC quota of 1.965 million b/d.
-By Simeon Kerr, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 20 7842 9343; simeon.kerr@dowjones.com (Adam Smallman in London contributed to this article)
Updated March 23, 2003 6:11 a.m. |
