[Vision2020] Picture of Rumsfeld and Hussein as friends!

[WMSteed@aol.com]

In a message dated 3/26/03 6:40:28 AM, thansen@moscow.com writes:

<< If you turn yoiur clocks back about 12 years, you will recall a man from
Texas (of all places) who managed the "snuffing" of oil well fires in
Kuwait.  He was not associated with the Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) unit of
Halliburton in any way.  His name was (and is) Red Adair.

You evidently can read very well.  Apparently it is your memory that is
fading. >>

And I thought Red had died.  Glad to hear that is not the case.  In a January 
29, 2003, Newsweek interview he said, "Now 87, Adair sold his company in 1993 
and has been retired for a decade, but still offers his consulting services 
when needed. He still considers his role in putting out the Kuwaiti oil-well 
fires one of his greatest tasks and achievements. But if the United States 
attacks Iraq and Saddam’s troops set oil-well fires in their own country, 
Adair says the men he trained would face an even tougher—and much more 
dangerous—job putting out those fires. In an interview published on 
Newsweek.com on January 29, NEWSWEEK’s Jennifer Barrett spoke with Adair 
about that possibility. Excerpts:
       
       NEWSWEEK: Do you think Saddam Hussein’s troops might try the same 
fire-setting tactics inside Iraq as they did in Kuwait should the U.S. launch 
an attack?
       Red Adair: Nobody knows what Saddam’s going to do. Iraq has two 
tremendous oilfields, one in the north and one in the south. The southern 
field produces a reserve of at least 80 billion barrels of oil—it’s by far 
the biggest—while the north has about 15 billion barrels. Their natural gas 
reserves are way up in the trillions [110 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, 
according to the Energy Information Administration]. Something like that 
[setting fires] could take in the whole country. But you just can’t guess 
what Saddam would do. I wouldn’t assume anything. I would not be comfortable 
around that man. I think he is the world’s greatest liar, don’t you?

Well, I wouldn’t be comfortable around him. Then again, I wouldn’t be 
comfortable fighting a fire in an oil well, either. How would fighting oil 
fires in Iraq be different than it was in Kuwait in 1991?
       It’s not like Kuwait over there. These are big fields. In Kuwait, it 
was one area and the wells were close together. In Iraq, they are all over. 
And the terrain is different. You’ve got swamplands and mountains and a 
little bit of everything. Also, the Iraqi wells are high-pressure wells. In 
Kuwait, there was very little pressure so there was very little gas. We were 
able to put those out with water. At one point, we were capping five wells a 
day. But even when we worked in Iraq last, about 25 years ago, we would take 
maybe a month on one well. And Saddam is still way behind on new technology 
in the oil industry—he is behind schedule on that. Kuwait was easy compared 
to what would happen over in Iraq. I just hope it doesn’t happen.
       
       So it would be significantly more dangerous to put out these fires in 
Iraq than it was in Kuwait—even if the area was secure?
       Yeah, and some of that oil they produce in Iraq has a lot of gas in 
it. The wells have hydrogen sulfates [a type of sulfuric acid]. That will 
kill you—500 parts per million and you won’t last more than about 45 
seconds. If you put it out when it’s burning it makes SO2—sulfur dioxide 
[exposure to which can affect the respiratory system]. That is pretty bad, 
but it’s not nearly as bad as hydrogen sulfide. You’ve got to wait to see 
what those wells have got in them until you can plan on anything. That’s the 
way I look at it.


Looks like his old company, or Halliburton, can use all the help they could 
get.


Walter Steed