MORE NATIONS JOIN KUWAIT WELL FIRE CAMPAIGN

The international campaign to kill Kuwait's wild wells continues to spread to other countries.

German, French, and Romanian companies are the latest to try to join the effort to douse the remaining wild wells, which total about 400 now. Kuwait Oil Co. is reviewing a proposal by a German group and has signed contracts with Romania's state oil company Rompetrol and with the French engineering company Horwell.

KOC said that by the end of August crews from the U.K., the U.S.S.R., China and Iran will be operational: and the number of firefighting teams will have risen to 21. Teams from the U.S. and Canada are currently battling the wild wells.

Plans call for drilling the first replacement wells in Kuwait beginning next month. Kuwaiti officials still stand by earlier claims that most wild wells will be under control by March 1992. They also target production of 800,000 b/d by yearend 1992.

In addition, Indonesia has sent 400 technicians to Kuwait to help in the restoration of the latter's oil industry, OPEC News Agency reported. The workers were recruited from Indonesia's oil fields and refineries.

Indonesian Manpower Minister Cosmas Batubara said Kuwait will need 15,000 workers to help restore its oil industry.

Arrangements for sale of Kuwait's first postwar oil shipments have been delayed because of uncertainty about crude quality.

In other news related to the aftermath of the Persian Gulf war, a resumption of Iraqi oil exports by yearend is a realistic prospect, Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) reported.

The publication makes that claim despite Iraq's rejection of a United Nations Security Council draft resolution calling for resumption of Iraqi exports to provide revenues for food and other humanitarian aid.

GERMAN PROPOSAL

German Minister of Research and Technology Heinz Riesenhuber said a group of companies, set up earlier this year under the agency's auspices, developed a new technology to douse Kuwaiti wells, according to press reports.

Details are sketchy, but the method apparently involves injecting steam under extremely high pressure into the column of flame at the wellhead to put out the fire.

To generate the high pressure steam, the German group plans to cannibalize jet engines stripped from mothballed Soviet made MIG-21 jets owned by the former East German army.

Each engine will be mounted on a chassis cannibalized from a T-55 tank, also owned by the former East German army, for transport to the well site.

The Germans also plan to use a custom built version of an Athey wagon involving a chassis cannibalized from a Leopard 1 tank with a sealed fireproof hull and cranes with 80 m long booms to clear debris away from the wellhead.

The Germans' proposal includes field preparations, clearing mines, dousing flames and killing wells, and well repair and recommissioning.

If the Kuwaitis agree to the German proposal, work can begin by the end of September, Riesenhuber said.

ROMANIAN, FRENCH CONTRACTS

The contract with Rompetrol is worth $7.5 million, and the larger contract with Horwell is for $25 million covering a 6 month period.

Horwell's contract calls for it to extinguish and repair 84 wells, most of them afire in Raudhatain field in northern Kuwait. There is an option to extend the contract if the work is not complete within 6 months or to shorten it if the job is completed sooner.

Horwell is not relying on Bechtel Group's backup organization and will provide its own logistics and civil engineering capabilities. Bechtel is overseeing overall restoration of Kuwait's petroleum industry.

Two five man Horwell teams are to be operational by Sept. 15. There will be a logistical and technical support staff of 70. Horwell said oil workers make up one third of the team. The rest are nonoil personnel.

Horwell originally was formed by Ste. Nationale Elf Aquitaine as its horizontal drilling subsidiary. The company is now owned by Institut Francais du Petrole, Forasol, and Geoservice.

Help with the firefighting effort was offered in the early stages of the campaign, but the French company was brought in only recently when KOC accelerated the well control program.

PROGRESS REPORTED

Kuwaiti Oil Minister Hamoud al-Rquba said about 40% of Kuwait's wild wells have been killed.

Most remaining wells are to be extinguished by next March, he said.

As of early last week, about 295 wells of the original 732 were under control.

The last damaged well in Magwa field south of Kuwait City was killed last week, and the previous week firefighters doused the last well fire in neighboring Ahmadi field. Magwa, with 148 wells, and Ahmadi, with 89, are considered part of the Greater Burgan field complex.

Work is set to begin next month in the northern fields, where about 150 high pressure wells are still ablaze.

Kuwait currently produces about 150,000 b/d from undamaged or repaired wells, and production is expected to reach 400,000 b/d by yearend, al-Rquba said.

That compares with a productive capacity of 2 million b/d before Iraq's Aug. 2, 1990, blitzkrieg of Kuwait.

Al-Rquba said the crude lost from Iraq's retreating campaign of sabotage and resulting blowouts eventually could total as much as 3% of Kuwait's total proved reserves. Kuwait reported estimated reserves of about 94.5 billion bbl of oil as of Jan. 1, 1991.

KUWAITI EXPORT CRUDE

Shell International Trading Co. has emerged as buyer of one of the first two cargoes of export crude from Kuwait.

The first two cargoes were loaded July 26-27 and Aug. 5-7, but sales were delayed while quality assays took place. Shell France and Shell U.K. Ltd. will be eventual users of the oil.

MEES said samples from the first cargo varied in quality, with much of the crude reportedly from old supplies.

Industry sources earlier said the first postinvasion exports would be of higher quality than Kuwait's preinvasion export blend (OGJ, Aug. 5, Newsletter).

IRAQI EXPORTS?

Exports of about 500,000 b/d of Iraqi crude during fourth quarter 1991 and first quarter 1992 "must be regarded as a realistic prospect," MEES said.

However, Iraq on Aug. 9 rejected the U.N. Security Council resolution allowing it to sell limited volumes of oil for humanitarian reasons and instead demanded the economic sanctions against it-slightly more than 1 year old-be lifted.

The resolution calls for Iraq to sell $1.6 billion worth of crude in a 6 month period (OGJ, Aug. 12, Newsletter).

Iraq said the draft would not provide even the minimum financial resources needed to meet the Iraqi people's needs for food, medicine, and other basic supplies. It also complained the resolution contravenes the right of a country to exercise sovereignty over its resources and the embargo no longer is justified "now that the Kuwait problem is over and after Iraq's acceptance and implementation of the Security Council resolutions."

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