Energy Issues

Vol. 232 No. 10

It hardly seems possible, but 20 years ago, this month, the oil fires in Kuwait were still burning brightly. As we wade through the aftermath of Macondo and recent pipeline spills, it is worth remembering that the huge well control effort mounted by the international oil and gas community in Kuwait was one of our greatest achievements.

For those of you who don’t remember (and there can’t be many), as Iraqi troops were withdrawing from Kuwait in front of the advancing coalition forces in 1991, special forces from Iraq torched some 750 Kuwaiti oil wells. The results were cataclysmic. The oil fires burned for more than eight months, consuming an estimated 5–6 million bpd of crude oil and 2.4–3.6 Bcfd of natural gas. More than a billion barrels of oil was eventually burned. The oil that did not ignite formed into more than 300 large lakes containing 22.5 million bbl of oil, cumulatively. An additional 10 million bbl of oil poured into the Persian Gulf, severely impacting marine life. Between late February, when the first fires were ignited, and Nov. 6, when the last fire was extinguished, smoke plumes containing a hazardous mixture of gaseous emissions and particulate matter engulfed a downwind area as large as 150,000 sq km, leaving many exposed to the plumes with lingering health issues.¹

Into this hellish scene poured more than 10,000 international oil and gas workers from 37 countries. Employees from America’s “Big Four”—Red Adair, Boots and Coots, Safety Boss and Wild Well Control—were the first to arrive in early March. Bechtel Inc. provided construction and logistical support, and OGE Drilling initially coordinated the multiple firefighting teams. Santa Fe Drilling Company joined the effort. By March 16, well control operations were underway. After several months of working with the four well control companies, the Kuwaiti government decided more help was needed. By the end of August, firefighting teams from France, Hungary, China, Iran, the USSR and the UK were on the ground. A network of 361 water lagoons was created, each with capacity of 1 million gallons. Some 450 km of water piping connected these lagoons to well control sites. More than 5,000 pieces of heavy equipment were mobilized, with the first deliveries by US military airlift on March 15, 1991.²

The well control crews were quick to develop and implement innovative firefighting techniques. In early April 1991, the first fires were extinguished using enormous volumes of seawater, which was piped brought from the Persian Gulf through a converted oil pipeline at 4,000 gal/min. Another method involved “raising the plume”: A metal casing 30–40 ft long was placed vertically over the blown wellhead, raising the flame well above the ground. Liquid nitrogen or water was pumped into the casing, reducing the oxygen supply to the fire. A third method was the drilling of relief wells. The use of dynamite to extinguish the fires was also helpful on occasion.

One of the more unconventional techniques used MIG-21 turbine engines mounted on old Soviet T-62 tanks. This method, devised by the Hungarian team, directed high-pressure water and air at the burning well. It proved to be effective and fairly popular.

Few of the firefighting teams had ever dealt with sabotage. In addition to the inherent risks involved in the firefighting effort, another hazard was the tremendous amount of unexploded ordnance left from coalition bombing and the ground war. Each new work site had to be cleared of these munitions before firefighting efforts could take place.

Draining the oil lakes was just as complicated. Early efforts to gather oil from the lakes and move it to processing facilities were successful. However, atmospheric conditions during the recovery efforts and extended exposure time in the lakes reduced the oil to sludge in fairly short order, destroying its economic value. Recovery efforts geared down, and much of the oil was left in the lakes. As the surface oil further deteriorated, it became tar-like and mixed with the desert sand to form tarcrete, a hard covering overlaying the dry oil lakes.

A NASA satellite photo from 1991 shows smoke billowing from the burning Kuwaiti oil wells.

When the final well was brought under control in November 1991, it ended eight months of intense well control activity, the likes of which the industry and the world had never seen before. But the struggle had just begun. The wells had to be brought back online. Kuwait’s pipeline and refinery complex, also attacked by Iraqi special forces, had to be repaired. The cost would top $5 billion, with well control activities alone estimated at $1.5 billion (about $2 million per well). The costs to the environment were staggering.

Of course, the results of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait were tragic. Looking back, though, our industry met the challenge, killing an average of nearly 100 wells a month. It is an achievement we can be very proud of. Let’s hope we never have to do it again. 

LITERATURE CITED
1 Rostker, B., “Environmental exposure report: Oil well fires,” US Department of Defense, 2000.
2 Lerner, K. L. and B. W. Lerner, eds., Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence and Security, Gale Group, 2003.