Fire in the Desert

OIL & GAS

For the past four weeks, the bleakness of the French Sahara 450 miles south of Algiers has been illuminated night and day by a billowing, 450-ft. torch of flame. Visible for 90 miles and roaring like a dozen jetliners at takeoff, the fire is consuming the riches of the recently discovered Gassi Touil natural-gas field at the staggering rate of 30 million cu. ft. a day--enough gas to meet the average daily requirements of Tucson, Ariz.

Touched off when static electricity ignited gas escaping from a blown valve at a well called GT2, the Gassi Touil fire would, if it went unchecked, burn for the next century, wasting forever one of the largest underground reservoirs of natural gas (an estimated 7 trillion cu. ft.) yet tapped by man. To avert this economic tragedy, the field's owners--a combine consisting of two French companies, called COPEFA and OMNIREX, and the U.S.'s Phillips Petroleum Co.--have called in daredevil Texan Paul Adair, 46, president of Houston's Red Adair Oil Well Fires & Blowouts Control Co.

Affluence in Red. Flame-haired "Red" Adair learned his rare trade in 16 years with tough old Myron Kinley, dean emeritus of oil fire fighters, set up his own company four years ago when Kinley retired. Already this year, the burly Adair and his two apprentices, Asgar ("Boots") Hansen and Edward ("Coots'") Matthews, have tamed 50 wells in Bahrein, Brazil, Bolivia, Guatemala, Venezuela, Canada and the U.S. With an affluence known to no other firemen, Adair and his boys race to U.S. oilfield fires in flame-red Lincoln Continentals, fly in jet comfort to more distant alarms, and often collect as much as $20,000 plus expenses for a single job. For all his flamboyance--he indulges his fondness for red in his coveralls, safety helmets, office rug and secretary's hair--Adair is methodical about his business, carefully notes and catalogues everything he learns from a fire "so as to have a little nugget handy in our minds to lick a problem next time it shows."

For GT2, Adair's battle plan calls first for bulldozers to push several steel huts up close to the fire. From these, Gassi Touil roustabouts will spray water high into the air to form a cooling curtain for Adair and his men as they move in to attach hooks to the twisted remains of GT-2's rig and blown-out pipe, and winch the debris out of the way. Then a bulldozer will maneuver explosives on the end of a 200-ft. boom right up to the flames. If all goes right, the blast will snuff out the fire by momentarily interrupting the flow of gas and blowing away the oxygen.

After the fire is out comes the tricky business of putting a cap on the escaping gas. With powerful winches pulling against the relentless pressure of the gas, Adair will force a 15-ton control head over the well. The head divides the gas flow like a garden sprinkler so that it can be controlled but not shut off. Meanwhile, slanting lateral wells will be drilled to the base of the mile-deep GT2, and through them specially compounded oil drillers' "mud''* will be forced into the main boring until enough weight builds up in the shaft to shut off the gas flow.

Post-Christmas Coup. All this will take costly time. Because GT2 is the Sahara's first fire, equipment that is readily available in other fields has to be flown in from England, France and the U.S. Meantime, a well has to be drilled 2,600 ft. down to water-bearing sands to provide the 40,000 gallons needed daily to shield the firemen and to dampen the area around GT2 in order to prevent sparks from relighting the fire before the gas flow is plugged. While these preliminaries are going on, Adair will continue to pop around the world taking care of other troublesome wells. But he will be back by Christmas, confidently plans to administer the coup de grace to the Gassi Touil fire in early January, and then submit to the oil companies a bill that, including expenses, will run to several million dollars. "After talking to Adair," commented one Paris newsman last week, "my impression is that GT2 doesn't have a chance."

*Oilmen's "mud," which is actually a suspension of clay and various chemicals in water, differs in formula depending on whether it is being used to lubricate a drill bit, float rock chips out of the way of the bit, or seal a shaft against blast. To plug a well, "weighted mud" of powdered clay and barium sulfates mixed to the consistency of cake batter is used.

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