Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!ccu.umanitoba.ca!herald.usask.ca!alberta!ubc-cs!uw-beaver!cornell!llenroc!batcomputer!caen!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!cbnews!cbnews!military
From: jtchew@csa2.lbl.gov (JOSEPH T CHEW)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: using AFMs to exginguish oil fires
Summary: ...and plenty of fuel for the reignition
Keywords: AFM, Kuwait, wildfires
Message-ID: <1991Mar14.041529.29082@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 14 Mar 91 04:15:29 GMT
References: <1991Mar1.052316.28686@cbnews.att.com> <1991Mar8.022150.7824@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (william.b.thacker)
Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory - Berkeley, CA, USA
Lines: 27
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: jtchew@csa2.lbl.gov (JOSEPH T CHEW)
>The problem with blowing out oil well fires is that the fire has heated
>up the metallic junk surrounding the wellhead to incandesance. The fire
>will immediately relight as soon as air whooshes back in following the
>snuffing explosion. You must first remove as much of the junk as possible
>and cool the rest with lots of water. Then you can blow out the candle.

And, if I'm not mistaken, the Arabian oilfields are different than
most American ones. The oil is not pumped out; it comes out under the
pressure of natural gas in the limestone formations.  Flow rates, I 
believe, are on the order of 1000 gallons/minute.  

I don't know whether there is any possibility of destroying the wells
underground effectively, i.e., stopping this fuel flow before it gets
to the aforementioned hot metal.  

Given that there are three small companies in the well-fire control business 
that I know of, and that the Kuwaiti problem is two orders of magnitude worse
than anything previously fought, one would imagine that plenty of ideas are
being brainstormed, some involving military ordnance. To search for a small 
silver lining in that big black cloud, this is the best-ever "field lab" for 
innovative well control methods.

--Joe
"Just another personal opinion from the People's Republic of Berkeley"