KUWAIT, 31 March 2003 — Backed by their government, at four o’clock each morning, a group of 24 Kuwaiti petroleum engineers begin their difficult jobs in helping to put out fires in nine Iraqi oil wells. They work long hours at a location some 170 kilometers from their homes and only break off their labors at sunset. In spite of this back-breaking labor and the psychological strain, the engineers remain optimistic of the possibility of extinguishing the fires in a few weeks.
The engineers are experienced in this field. Twenty-nine Kuwaitis worked in putting out 600 burning wells after the Iraqi Army withdrew from Kuwait in the last Gulf War. Today their mission is different: to protect the natural resources of Iraq. This is the reason stated by Ahmed Al-Arbeed, president of the Kuwait Oil Company, when he said that “the oil wealth is the property of the Iraqi people and we hope that they will benefit from it at the end of the war.”
“We were commissioned with the job of putting out the fires in the oil wells,” Essa Buyabis, head of the fire-fighting brigade of the Kuwait Oil Co., said. “The Kuwaiti government felt that it would be very important if our experience was made available as a present to the Iraqi people, and no sooner were the border areas south of Rumaila secured by the American and British forces than the entire team of 25 Kuwaiti experts were made available.”
“The work is confined to daylight hours because it is difficult to do this kind of work at night for security reasons. We might be a target, even by mistake.”
Al-Arbeed had this to say: “The role of the Kuwait Oil Company in putting out the fires is an expression of the feelings of the Kuwaiti people for Iraq and an attempt to put a stop to the destruction of the petroleum wealth which belongs to the Iraqi people. It might also lead to the protection of the environment from the effects of the fires in the surrounding areas.”
“As Kuwaitis, we understand better than most the scope of the problem, because we faced hundreds of oil well fires started by the Iraqi regime when it invaded Kuwait,” Al-Arbeed added.
He explained that there were now nine oil wells on fire, six of which have been inspected. In the last few days one of the fires has been brought under control. Efforts are under way to control the size of the problem and the effects of the fires.
Buyabis revealed that the search for unignited explosives near the surrounding oil wells has begun. This gave a clear indication that the oil wells were deliberately set on fire with the intention of polluting the environment and destroying the oil wealth. He added that work was continuing today to put out the fires on the second oil well.
The team has faced logistical difficulties, but Buyabis said the work would start again soon. He expected the team to complete its mission within two or three weeks.
Buyabis made it clear that there was coordination with the members of a team from the Texan company Botts and Coutts, which specializes in putting out oil field fires.
“We are volunteers in this operation, but there are other groups trying to make bids on behalf of companies which are after firefighting contracts,” Al-Arbeed said. “But we are going to finish our job on a voluntary basis.”
Asked about the possibility of the effect of the fires on the Kuwaiti underground reserves located on the edges of the Rumaila field, Al-Arbeed said: “We have not yet dealt with this problem in a comprehensive way because we have no detailed knowledge of the area and its special characteristics.”
It is difficult to determine the extent of such reservoirs as some of them in fact contain only waste material. Special tests are needed to obtain detailed information. “We in the company are obliged to protect the official share of the oil of Kuwait, which is 2.4 million barrels of oil daily,” Al-Arbeed added. “There is nothing to impede the work flow even in the northern fields such as Al-Abdali and Al-Riqqa which are secured to gathering centers 23 and 25.”
