Gulf oil catastrophe critical

File: 011696_92_4_002.txt
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Total Pages: 18






              With 50 rigs the whole operation could be completed in as little
              as 12-15 months.

              The choice might become academic if the rigs are not mobilized
              and positioned in the high-pressure fields very quickly indeed. A
              seven-person team from Friends of the Earth international (FOEX)
              have recently released the first "hard evidence" video of the
              actual level of devastation within the oilfields.

              FOEI report that huge lakes of oil are accumulating across the
              area and that some of the high-pressure blowouts now have burning
              craters more than one thousand feet in diameter. This is a
              drastic change from the position in March when T B O'Brien, boss
              of the firefighting teams, stated that nearly all of the blowouts
              could be approached easily by road.

              Xt is likely that the oil lakes will increase in size to the
              point where they will block access routes, making it impossible
              to get the big rigs through to their required locations for
              relief drilling, roughly within one kilometre of each high-
              pressure blowout.

              If that happens, the significance cannot be overstated.

              With the high-pressure wells mentioned by the Kuwaitis there is,
              quite literally, no other solution. The fire fighters are
              powerless to help and there are no miracle cures. Only
              directional drilling rigs are equipped to handle the greatest
              conflagration ever known in the Middle East.

              The Price of Failure
              The United Nations team who recently returned from Kuwait also
              noted a rapidly deteriorating scenario. They report a relatively
              large number of the burning wells extinguished themselves by a
              process known as "coming", brought about by the natural induction
         of groundwater into the oil plumes. The UN states that 40-50 well
              fires have extinguished themselves in this manner already.

              The problem is that, while the fires have gone out, the oil and
              water continues to flow unabated, forming the great lakes of Oil
              reported by FOEI.

              in this situation the fire fighters' role has been reversed, with
              attempts being made to relight some of the wells in an attempt to
              control the size of the oil lakes..All but six of these attempts
              have failed.

              As more and more wells self-extinguish but continue to flow, the
              greater the overall problem becomes. Already, high sand walls
              have been bulldozed into place.in an attempt to contain the vast
              quantity of oil and to prevent leakage into the Arabian Gulf.

              if the situation is allowed to continue, we will eventually be
              faced with a complete and uncontrollable disaster. Kuwait by
              itself is capable of producing up to 94 million barrels of oil if
              it is allowed to flow unchecked. The catastrophic effect of such
              a huge volume of oil unleashed into our oceans beggars the
              -imagination.
Box ID = BX000000
Unit = CONST ENG LABS  
Parent Organization = ;CORPS OF ENGS  
Folder Title = SMITH PAPERS POST GULF WAR RECOVERY                                                             
Subject = Gulf oil catastrophe critical
Document Number =         92
Image file name = 00000022.tif