Oil well fire teams mobilise

Oil well fire specialists were preparing to fly to southern Iraq last night to extinguish wells blown up by Iraqi forces.

As clouds of thick black smoke billowed across the main oilfield area behind Basra, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, chief of the defence staff, revealed that the Iraqi forces had set alight only seven wells, much fewer than the 30 estimated by the defence secretary, Geoff Hoon, earlier in the day.

US and British officials remain confident that Saddam Hussein's army will be prevented from repeating the environmental disaster they caused when they blew up more than 700 wells during the first Gulf war.

Although a few of Iraq's 1,685 wells are affected, the experts said last night that the fires might prove far more difficult to extinguish than those begun in Kuwait.

In 1991 about 10,000 firefighters, engineers and other personnel took 200 days to put them out at a cost of $2.5bn. The damage was $20bn.

But Iraq's wells are much bigger than Kuwait's, pumping out four times as much oil a day. They are also deeper, so the oil comes out of the ground at a much higher pressure.

Mark Baddick, chief operations officer of the Calgary oil well firefighting company Safety Boss, said this could cause them big problems.

He said: "When you are dealing with high pressure wells, the potential for something going wrong is a lot higher, just because the sheer volumes of oil coming out are so much greater.

"Then there's the gas factor. If there is a risk of [deadly gas] the men have to wear breathing apparatus, which makes it much more difficult to work. Tasks that would take an hour can take 10 hours."

Mr Baddick's company extinguished 180 fires in 200 days in Kuwait, but he said it was highly unlikely that the Iraq fires could be dealt with at such a rate.

"For a start, the geography and the topography will be a big factor.

"In 1991 the wells were close together so we could all stay in one camp. Iraq is a much bigger area, and the terrain is tougher, lots of marshland in the south and mountains in the north."

Many of the Kuwaiti fires were put out by using the pipelines in reverse to let water from the Gulf flood the wells, but this may not be an option in Iraq.

Moreover, the Kuwait wells were lit by explosions near the surface, whereas those in Iraq might be detonated further down, making them more difficult to repair. Unlike Kuwait, the firefighters will not have detailed information about the wells.

In the worst instance it could take up to a month to deal with a single well.

US and British soldiers will already be sweeping mines and checking the wellheads for unexploded bombs.

When this is completed the firefighters will be able to go begin assessing each blaze and deciding which to deal with first.

Their first step will be to clear the debris around the well, which in itself can take up to a month if there is a lot of damage.

If possible they will then cut away the damaged wellhead so that the oil glow goes straight up into the air, making it easier to get to the seat of the fire.

Relief wells may also be drilled to take some pressure off the main stem.

In some cases it is possible to cap the well while it is stil burning, cutting off the supply of fuel to the fire by closing the valve when the cap is in place.

But in others this may cause a dangerous build-up of gas.

Extinguishing the flames is the hardest and most dangerous part, traditionally done with high explosives.

Mr Baddick's company uses 3,000lb extinguishers which spray 200lb of dry chemicals a second to smother the flames, but the firefighters have to get within a few feet, protected from the extreme heat by sheetmetal barriers and a constant shower of water.

"If there is a high gas concentration then it will burn even hotter," Mr Baddick said.

"It's the most fun you can have with your clothes on."