Oil Well Fires Limited - So Far

Up to 30 oil wells had been set afire by Iraqi forces, but said these were on a small number of the total in southern Iraq, British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said Friday in London.

Iraq has 1,685 producing oil wells, many of them concentrated near the southern city of Basra.

Thick smoke filled the skies from fires at some of the wells and processing facilities in the region, where pipelines funnel Iraq's economic lifeblood through the al-Faw peninsula to the Persian Gulf.

U.S. military planners and oil importers have feared Saddam Hussein would order troops to sabotage their country's precious patrimony — 112 billion barrels of oil in the world's second-largest proven crude reserves.

Retreating Iraqi troops burned Kuwait's oil fields during the 1991 Gulf War. And worries mounted in recent weeks that Iraqis have rigged their oil wells with explosives in hopes of slowing a U.S.-led attack and making the country's oil wealth worthless for any new government.

That fueled a run-up in oil prices this week, amid fear the few dozen fires might presage the wholesale destruction of Iraq's oil industry.

The Pentagon — which confirmed Wednesday that Iraq has booby-trapped oil wells so one person could blow them up — insists it will try to secure oil fields quickly to prevent Saddam's forces from damaging the wells.

Mussab Al-Dujayli, the head of crude sales at Iraq's state oil monopoly, said he could not comment on the reported fires. "I hope you understand my position," he said by phone from his home in Baghdad.

"The United States and its international partners anticipated that Saddam Hussein's regime might attempt acts of sabotage against oil wells," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said in Washington, but gave no further details.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries sought to calm markets, reports CBS Newswoman Eve Kuhn in Vienna. Secretary-General Alvaro Silva Calderon told reporters that members have agreed to put 3-4 million barrels of oil on the market if there is a crisis in supply because of the war. OPEC, he said, will make up for any shortfalls by using its excess capacity. It is there, he said, and ready to be used if needed, but so far, recent declining prices do not yet show a need.

Iraqi crude exports totaled 2 million barrels a day before the war.

U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said world energy supplies are "more than adequate" to compensate for any disruption in Iraqi crude shipments. Speaking in Washington, he reiterated a warning from President Bush that Iraqis who carry out orders to sabotage oil wells would be held criminally accountable.

A loss of oil from Iraq could squeeze supplies for importing countries, including the United States, which depends on Iraq for 2 percent of all the crude it consumes. A scorched-earth demolition of wells and other oil facilities could also deny the U.S. and British governments an asset they hope will help pay for postwar reconstruction of Iraq.

Al-Dujayli confirmed that Iraq has stopped exporting oil from its Persian Gulf port of Mina al-Bakr, the destination for much of the oil produced near Basra.

Leo Drollas of the Center for Global Energy Studies in London said he wouldn't be surprised if Saddam had issued general orders for sabotage to begin.

"But it wouldn't be everyone who executed the commands," he said. "It depends on which army units are there and how much they're looking over their shoulders."

With tensions rising over the past several months, Saddam has had plenty of time to organize such destruction. He also has the experience.

In 1991, Iraqi troops needed just a few days and some plastic explosives to destroy more than 700 well heads and turn Kuwait's occupied oil fields into a desert inferno. The result was geysers of burning crude and lasting environmental damage. Teams of firefighters worked from April until November to put out the fires.

It took Kuwait more than two years and $50 billion to restore its oil output to prewar levels.

Sabotage in Iraq could be much costlier, largely because its fields and pipelines are badly run down after a dozen years of U.N. economic sanctions. Its fields are also much farther from the sea than those in Kuwait, meaning a ready source of firefighting water might not be so easily available.