Posted on 03/06/2003 9:35:25 PM PST by HAL9000
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Pentagon has contingency plans to extinguish oil well fires in Iraq, if Saddam Hussein sets them ablaze as he did in Kuwait in 1991, the Defense Department said.The Pentagon said Saddam has both the "capability and the intent to damage or destroy Iraq's oil fields," citing recent intelligence that 24 rail containers of pentolite explosives have been delivered to Iraq.
US estimates say the regime's likely actions would potentially double the disastrous effects experienced in Kuwait in 1991 when the destruction of Kuwaiti oil wells by Saddam had 20 times the detrimental impact of the Exxon Valdez disaster.
Among the effects, it rendered about 30 percent of Kuwait's water unusable.
"US plans are first to prevent the destruction of Iraq's oil fields and second, if unable to prevent the destruction, to control and mitigate the damage quickly," the Defense Department said in a statement.
"US forces would be responsible for securing and protecting the oil sites, and under appropriate contractual agreements, private sector companies would extinguish any fires and assess damage to oil facilities.
The US government plan "for dealing, on short notice, with oil well fires that might occur in Iraq" was developed by private contractor Brown and Root services, a division of Kellogg Brown and Root Inc, in Houston.
The plan also addresses assessing damage to oil facilities.
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