Iraqi Kurd Paper Says Oil Field Explosion Technical Not Bombing

Text of report entitled “Hawal discloses the secrets of explosions in the oil field and the wasting of public money”, carried by biweekly independent Kurdish newspaper Hawal on 27 October; subheads as published

An oil export revealed that the blowing up of the oil field of Khabbazah21 was not caused by sabotage as it was reported in the media. But it was the result of a technical fault and the responsibility for it lies with the department responsible for digging up oil fields.

The explosions that happened in Khabaza-31 claimed the life of a staff member and left three others injured; this is in addition to financial damage and waste of public money.

About the technical fault that caused the explosions, the source told Hawal: The kind of cement which was used for concretisation of the field was bad and was not in line with the laboratory specifications which are decided before any cementing work.

The source further revealed that such technical faults were the true cause of the blowing up of several other oil fields in the pas, such as those of Bay Hasan-33, and the breaking out of fire in the Kirkuk oil field-48 in the area of Jabal Bur in 2003 and the fires in the Kirkuk oil field- 408 in Farmalah. The source stressed the importance of forming a committee to investigate these incidents and to have those responsible for negligence punished as these incidents have caused great economic damage to Iraq as well as causing casualties and damage to the environment.

Hawal has obtained several photographs and documents that show that many tonnes of barite, drilling fluid, had expired and been wasted. The documents confirm the deterioration of the substances stored in the storages of the company in wrong temperatures and conditions. The cost of these substances amounts to millions of dollars.

The oil well of Khabbazah-31

The digging of this oil well was completed two weeks ago. Its depth is 2,999 metres. It is supposed to be a productive field, but the process of digging and production had some huge and dangerous technical faults, among these is that the central internal cover which is 95.8 inches was not placed in its proper position. [Passage omitted].

The oil well of Bay Hasan-33

Because of mixing up of gas in the well repair work was carried out. The well was deepened another 44 metres. Also (single packer) was successfully landed in the well as it is reported by the digging section. But the final inspection of the well indicates that there is too much pressure inside the well and this is not normal. This is the sign that the gas ratio is too high. The reason for this was the suspender of the productive internal cover and its plastic belt were not functioning properly to separate the gas due to the bad quality of the equipment used by the digging department. [Passage omitted]

All the efforts made to deal with these problems and the time and production wasted have cost millions of dollars without leading to any positive result for the oil company. These incidents happened before in the oil well of Kirkuk-408 in 2003, in oil well Kirkuk- 429 in Khurmalah and today they are happening in Khabbazah and Bay Hasan. And they will happen in other oil wells in the future.

Originally published by Hawal, Sulaymaniyah, in Sorani Kurdish 27 Oct 07.

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