Red Adair Says Halting Oil Fires May Take 5 Years, Blames Kuwait

Because of a lack of cooperation and support from the Kuwaiti government, putting out that nation’s burning oil wells could take up to five years, oil field fire expert Red Adair told a congressional panel Tuesday.

Kuwaiti officials estimated last month that the fires would be extinguished in a year or less. Adair told the Senate Persian Gulf Environmental Task Force, however, that he believes that it will take five times that long because firefighting crews do not have reliable equipment, emergency medical facilities or enough water to fight the intense blazes.

Adair, a Texan who pioneered oil-spill control techniques, heads one of three U.S. companies hired last February to help put out the emirate’s 600 oil well fires, many of them believed set by withdrawing Iraqi troops. He said firefighters so far have capped 157 of the damaged wells, which he characterized as the “easy ones.”

Adair said the crews have not begun closing the largest wells, some of which are topped by 500-foot flames hot enough to turn sand into glass. Many of these wells also are surrounded by minefields, which he said Kuwait has not started to clear.

“In this trade we need all the help we can get. (We need) somebody to get us some proper equipment and proper medics,” Adair said. “It’s about time that somebody over there started straightening up on what’s going on.”

He attributed the equipment delays to red tape and the bargain-hunting of engineering companies hired by the Kuwaiti government to coordinate the cleanup effort. He said that, even though the crews have been working for more than two months, the government is still soliciting bids.

“They’re looking for the best bids, and they said they couldn’t get them,” Adair said. “I don’t bid on mine. I don’t care what it costs because my men’s lives are worth a hell of a lot more than that.”

Adair added that many of his men have been idled because they are waiting for essential equipment or must make do with supplies that are substandard.

“We’re doing it ‘Mickey Mouse’ now,” he said. “I call it a Mickey Mouse operation.”

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), chairman of the task force, told Adair that he would relay his concerns to Sheik Saud al Nasir al Sabah, the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States. Lieberman also promised to ask the Defense Department to provide a medical evacuation helicopter for the crews.