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"In the grand scheme of things - with 1,500 oil wells in the country and only seven fires - this is the equivalent of a grease fire in the kitchen,"
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DJ Some US Oil Well Fire Teams Find Iraq Plans On Hold
03/24/2003
Dow Jones News Services
(Copyright © 2003 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
By Roy R. Reynolds
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
HOUSTON (Dow Jones)--The confirmation last week that Iraqi soldiers had begun to set fire to oil wells ignited contingency and travel planning for U.S. oil well firefighting companies, as they prepared to battle the blazes just as they did in Kuwait a decade earlier.
For most of those well control companies, however, planning is all they've had to do so far.
"In the grand scheme of things - with 1,500 oil wells in the country and only seven fires - this is the equivalent of a grease fire in the kitchen," said Jeff Miller, marketing director for RPS Inc. (RES) unit Cudd Pressure Control. "The magic number is about 20 to 25 wells, then they'd call the companies that handle these things."
Boots & Coots International Well Control Inc. (WEL) was the first U.S. well control company to get the call for operations in Iraq, benefitting from an alliance with Halliburton Co. (HAL), which drew up the initial plans on fighting fires for the Department of Defense. But there will need to be more fires before the department calls in more help.
U.S.-led forces have more or less secured southern Iraq's Rumaila oil field, the country's largest. According to military officials, only nine oil wells were set on fire there by Iraqi troops. During a press briefing at Command Central in Qatar Monday morning, Brig. Gen. Vince Brooks said there were only seven fires still burning.
Iraq's northern Kirkuk field, the country's second largest, isn't under U.S. control.
"The big thing now would be if the fields go up in the North," Miller said.
During Gulf War operations in 1991, firefighters put out nearly 700 well fires, after having prepared to fight about 200. Those fires put a shroud of black smoke over Kuwait and formed massive pools of oil that made transporting equipment to the wells difficult.
Paths cleared of mines and oil slicks between wells in 1991 were so narrow that large vehicles couldn't pass each other.
"(The danger can be) getting to and from the well and political circumstances," president and CEO of Superior Energy Services Inc.'s (SPN) Wild Well Control unit said in an interview earlier this year. "Once we're at the well, we know what to do."
Oil well firefighters use a variety of methods to battle the blazes, including the occasional deployment of explosives to halt the flow of oil for a split second and then soaking the area to keep the flame from reigniting.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Brian Kraus, president of Boots & Coots, said blazes in the Rumaila oil field could be put out in a month and a half, maybe sooner.
Production could be back on line "in a matter of days" after that, he said.
The lack of work so far isn't disturbing the well control companies.
"We'd much rather the war end quickly with no problems," said Miller. "There's plenty of work around here for us."
-By Roy R. Reynolds, Dow Jones Newswires; 713-547-9208; roy.reynolds@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
03-24-03 1513ET |
