Oil well fire

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An oil well on fire in Iraq

Oil well fires are oil or gas wells that have caught on fire and burn. Oil well fires can be the result of
human actions, such as accidents or arson, or natural events, such as lightning. They can exist on a
small scale, such as an oil field spill catching fire, or on a huge scale, as in geyser-like jets of flames
from ignited high pressure wells. A frequent cause of a well fire is a high-pressure blowout during
drilling operations.

Contents [hide]

1 Extinguishing the fires

2 Effects

3 Famous fires

4 See also

5 References

6 External links

Extinguishing the fires[edit]

Kuwaiti firefighters fight to secure a burning oil well in the Iraqi Rumaila oilfields in 2003.[1]

Oil well fires are more difficult to extinguish than regular fires due to the enormous fuel supply for
the fire. In fighting a fire at a wellhead, typically high explosives, such as dynamite, are used to
create a shockwave that pushes the burning fuel and local atmospheric oxygen away from a well.
(This is a similar principle to blowing out a candle.) The flame is removed and the fuel can continue
to spill out without catching on fire.

After blowing out the fire, the wellhead must be capped to stop the flow of oil. During this time, the
fuel and oxygen required to create another inferno are present in copious amounts. At this perilous
stage, one small spark (perhaps from a steel or iron tool striking a stone) or other heat source might
re-ignite the oil.

To prevent re-ignition, brass or bronze tools, which do not strike sparks, or paraffin wax-coated tools
are used during the capping process. Meticulous care is used to avoid heat and sparks, or any other
ignition source. Re-ignition at the wellhead may take the form of an extremely powerful explosion,
possibly even worse than the original blowout.
Some of the technology used by the Red Adair to seal some of the Kuwait oil fires without re-igniting
the flow of oil, originated in a patent by John R. Duncan (United States Patent 3,108,499 filed
September 28, 1960, granted October 29,1963), a method and apparatus for severing section of fluid
pipeline therefrom. The patent was granted a year after Red Adair's success in combating the Devil's
Cigarette Lighter gas well fire.[2] The invention is concerned with removing a section of a fluid
pipeline and inserting a valve or other component therein without destroying line pressure and
without losing any significant amount of fluid passing through the pipeline.

With recent advances in technology as well as environmental concerns, many straight forward well
fires today are capped while they burn.

There are several techniques used to put out oil well fires, which vary by resources available and the
characteristics of the fire itself.

In essence the trade was started by Myron M. Kinley, who dominated the field in the early years. His
lieutenant, Red Adair, went on to become the most famous of oil well firefighters.

Techniques include:[3]

Dousing with copious amounts of water. According to Larry H. Flak, a petroleum engineer for Boots
and Coots International Well Control, 90% of all the 1991 fires in Kuwait were put out with nothing
but sea water, sprayed from powerful hoses at the base of the fire.[1]

Using a gas turbine to blast a fine mist of water at the base of the fire. Water is injected behind the
exhaust of the turbine in large quantities. This proved popular with tackling stubborn fires in the
Kuwait oil fires(1991) and was brought to the region by Hungarians equipped with MiG 21 engines
mounted on a tank, either a T34 or T62.[4][5][6] Based on a Russian idea, the Hungarian vehicle,
named "Big Wind", was influenced by a similar concept used in Soviet times for extinguishing blown
out gas- and oil-well fires and clearing snow off airfields by using a single MiG-15 jet engine bolted
onto the bed of a truck. However, in this incarnation, it wasn't always powerful enough to defeat
large fires, although it was also brought to and used in Kuwait,[7][8] to tackle more resilient fires
therefore MB drilling company constructed "Big Wind" with two more powerful jet engines fixed to
the more stable chassis of a tank.[5] The IMAX documentary Fires of Kuwait follows the numerous
companies, and their methods, employed with the task of extinguishing the fires, with footage of the
Hungarian "Big Wind" in action contained in the film.

Using dynamite to 'blow out' the fire by forcing the burning fuel and oxygen away from the fuel
source. This was one of the earliest effective methods and is still widely used. The first use was by
Myron Kinley's father in California in 1913 [9] Generally explosives are placed within 55 gallon
drums, the explosives are surrounded by fire retardant chemicals, and then the drums are wrapped
with insulating material and a horizontal crane is used to bring the drum as close to the well head as
possible.[1]
Dry Chemical (mainly Purple K) can be used on small well fires.

In the 1930s mechanical jaws were developed to clamp off the pipe below the fire, but they are
seldom used today. The design became the basis for a safety device used on offshore wells.[10]

Special vehicles called "Athey wagons" as well as the typical bulldozer protected by corrugated steel
sheeting are normally used in the process.[11]

Raising the plume - placing a metal casing 30 to 40 feet high over the well head (thus raising the
flame above the ground). Liquid nitrogen or water is then forced in at the bottom to reduce the
oxygen supply and put out the fire.

The "LeRoy Corporation, Houston Oil well Firefighters." constructed a machine with an arm that was
positioned over an oil well pipe on fire. The machine then lowers a cap over the pipe, extinguishing
the flames. LeRoy Ashmore built 3 of these machines and named them Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego, for the Biblical characters, who survived death from a fiery furnace. The walls of LeRoy's
machines were hollow, allowing water pumped through them to circulate and keep the interior
control room water cooled during fire fighting.[12]

Drilling relief wells into the producing zone to redirect some of the oil and make the fire smaller.
(However, most relief wells are used to pump heavy mud and cement deep into the wild well.) The
first relief wells were drilled in Texas in the mid 1930s.[13]

Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy, the use of underground nuclear explosions were
successfully employed in the former Soviet Union to stop well fires, the high heat of the detonation
simultaneously displaces and melts the rock in its vicinity, and with that seals the previously drilled
hole.[14][15][16][17]

Effects[edit]

Oil well fires can cause the loss of millions of barrels of crude oil per day. Combined with the
ecological problems caused by the large amounts of smoke and unburnt petroleum falling back to
earth, oil well fires such as those seen in Kuwait (1991) can cause enormous economic losses.

Smoke from burnt crude oil contains many chemicals, including sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide,
soot, benzopyrene, Poly aromatic hydrocarbons, and dioxins.[18][19][20] Exposure to oil well fires is
commonly cited as a cause of the Gulf War Syndrome, however, studies have indicated that the
firemen who capped the wells did not report any of the symptoms suffered by the soldiers.[21]

1904 fire at a Bibi-Eibat oil well.

A Burmese oil well on fire, ca. 1905

Two wells on fire, Santa Fe Springs, California, 1928

Steel cap used to cap burning oil well in Santa Fe Springs, California, 1928

Famous fires[edit]

Piper Alpha, an oil rig that caught fire

Kuwait Oil Fires (1991)

See also[edit]

Safety Boss, an oil-well-fire-fighting company

Coal seam fire

Derweze

References[edit]

^ Jump up to: a b c "Iraq Fires erupt in large Iraqi oil field in south Compiled from Times wires © St.
Petersburg Times published March 21, 2003".

Jump up ^ "Hellfighters".

Jump up ^ John Wright Company Technical Library resource on blowout control

Jump up ^ "TAB C – Fighting the Oil Well Fires".

^ Jump up to: a b "Stilling The Fires of War, A Hungarian company lashes two MiG engines to a Soviet
tank and proceeds to huff and puff and blow out the worst sort of raging oil-well fire. 2001. page 2,
story by ZOLTAN SCRIVENER".

Jump up ^ Husain, T., Kuwaiti Oil Fires: Regional Environmental Perspectives, 1st ed. Oxford, UK:BPC
Wheatons Ltd, 1995, p. 51.

Jump up ^ "Fighting an Oil Well Fire A Hungarian MIG jet engine that was used to extinguish the
flames of some oil fires with high-pressure air, akin to blowing out a candle. These turbines were
also equipped with three hose nozzles for simultaneously spraying the flames with seawater and
chemicals. The procedure was very noisy. An athey wagon is in the background.".

Jump up ^ "Video".

Jump up ^ "The Fire Beater," Time

Jump up ^ "Oil-Well Fire Squeezed Out As Jaws Close Casing" Popular Mechanics, July 1935

Jump up ^ Putting Out an Oil Well Fire

Jump up ^ "VIDEO LeRoy-Ashmore fire fighting machine".

Jump up ^ "Wild Oil Well Tamed by Scientific Trick" Popular Mechanics, July 1934
Jump up ^ Nordyke, M. D. (2000-09-01). "Extinguishing Runaway Gas Well Fires". The Soviet Program
for Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Explosions (PDF). Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. pp. 34–35.
doi:10.2172/793554. Report no.: UCRL-ID-124410 Rev 2. U. S. Department of Energy contract no.:
W-7405-Eng48.

Jump up ^ Broad, William J. (2010-06-02). "Nuclear Option on Gulf Oil Spill? No Way, U.S. Says". New
York Times. Retrieved 2010-06-18.

Jump up ^ Nuke the oil spill: Could nuclear bomb be answer for huge leaks as at US Gulf coast?
(news video). Russia Today. Event occurs at 34 seconds. Retrieved 2010-05-05.

Jump up ^ "Soviet nuclear solution could be part of tactics to halt oil spill off US coast". Russia Today.
2010-05-05. Retrieved 2010-05-05.

Jump up ^ "IV. AIR POLLUTANTS FROM OIL FIRES AND OTHER SOURCES".

Jump up ^ Hobbs, Peter V.; Radke, Lawrence F. (May 15, 1992). "Airborne Studies of the Smoke from
the Kuwait Oil Fires". Science. 256 (5059): 987–91. Bibcode:1992Sci...256..987H.
doi:10.1126/science.256.5059.987. PMID 17795001.

Jump up ^ Desk Study on the Environment in Iraq, United Nations Environment Program

Jump up ^ Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses: Final Report, December
1996

External links[edit]

Media related to Oil well fires at Wikimedia Commons

Categories: Oilfield terminologyPetroleum productionFirefightingTypes of fire

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