IRAQ: Firefighters Find Signs Of Sabotage, But Little
Damage To Oil Wells
UN WIRE
Firefighters in southern Iraq said this week that
they have found evidence of sabotage in Iraq's
valuable Rumeila South oil field but that very few of
Iraq's 1,685 oil wells are burning.
Associated Press reports that Iraqi troops may have
disobeyed orders to blow up the wells or prepared weak
explosives that failed to do serious damage.
Firefighters doused one fire yesterday within 15
minutes with just two water cannons. The firefighters
estimated that they would be able to douse six
remaining blazes within two weeks.
Kuwait's senior firefighter, Aisa Bouyabes, said his
team found black wires snaking away from each damaged
well head. "These are the same wires that were used
in Kuwait to blow up our wells -- the same method
exactly," he said. "I've seen it before. I inspected
the wells in Kuwait immediately after the liberation,"
he said, but added that explosions so far have not
been powerful enough to destroy the well heads and
spark fires. "Whoever put in the explosives did not
want to repeat what happened in Kuwait," he said.
U.S.-led forces said their priority is to secure the
oil fields and prevent a repeat of Iraq's
scorched-earth tactic used at the end of the 1991 Gulf
War, during which Saddam Hussein's troops sabotaged
more than 700 well heads in Kuwait's oil fields,
causing $50 billion in damage. With the world's
second-largest reserves of crude oil, Iraq will need
oil export revenues to help pay for postwar
reconstruction, AP said.
U.S. Brigadier General Vincent Brooks, deputy director
of operations at Central Command in Doha, Qatar, said
the absence of widespread damage in the oil fields is
"a very important story for the future of Iraq"
(Stanley/McDowell, AP/Environmental News Network,
March 25).
"We can say there's success already," said U.S.
Brigadier General Robert Crear of the Army Corps of
Engineers, commander of the oil field operation. "If
you remember back in the previous war, there were over
700 wells that were set afire in Kuwait alone. Here,
we're talking about nine fires," he said (Mike
Shuster, National Public Radio Morning Edition, March
24, Note: You may have to download free software to
access this audio link).
Ongoing fighting around oil fields and limited access
to water, however, are hindering efforts to put out
the fires. "It's not nearly as safe as they said it
was," said Brian Krause of Texas-based Boots and
Coots, an oil services company. "We're kind of sitting
ducks out there" (Stanley McDowell, AP/Environmental
News Network).
Water is being trucked in and Krause said he intends
to build water-carrying pipelines across the desert
from Kuwait. It is not known how many oil wells have
been rigged, but "once we get water in here, I think
we'll move very quickly," Krause said. "Once we get
the water here you'll be surprised by how quick we can
do it," he said (Shuster, NPR Morning Edition).
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John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Tonight I have a message for the brave and oppressed people of Iraq:
Your enemy is not surrounding your country � your enemy is ruling your
country. And the day he and his regime are removed from power will be
the day of your liberation." -George W. Bush 1/29/03
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