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Douse southern fires { March 22 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9706-2003Mar22.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9706-2003Mar22.html US, UK Forces to Douse Southern Iraq Oil Fires Reuters Saturday, March 22, 2003; 10:19 AM AS SAYLIYA CAMP, Qatar (Reuters) - U.S. and British forces are preparing to douse fires at seven oil wells blazing in Iraq's southern Rumaila oilfield, military officials said on Saturday. U.S. Central Command said the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force has secured the gas oil separation plants (GOSPS), crude export facilities and the field's 1,074 wells, which close to the city of Basra. "We do have control of Rumaila oilfield in the south of the country," Group Captain Al Lockwood, main spokesman at the Qatar command headquarters of U.S. and British forces in the Gulf, told Reuters in an interview. He said specially-trained personnel were preparing to fight fires at the Rumaila fields, which are capable of pumping more than one million barrels per day (bpd). Iraq's total output before the outbreak of hostilities had been running at some 2.5 million bpd. "Despite reports yesterday of up to 35 (fires), at the moment I believe there are only seven. We are rapidly bringing to bear equipment to control these oil fires." U.S. General Vince Brooks told a news conference in Qatar on Saturday that Iraq had "sabotaged" a total of nine wells in Rumaila. Earlier Iraq denied torching oil wells, saying instead that it had set oil-filled trenches ablaze in an effort to prevent U.S. and British warplanes from finding their targets. U.S. Central Command said in a statement that some deserted plants had been "improperly shut down by Iraqis," causing oil pumping from the well to overfill tanks. "The oil is currently seeping around the area and could pose a potential threat of explosion if the oil reaches burning wells," it said. "Oil fire fighting crews will move into the areas at a designated time to snuff out the fires." It said four GOSPS, a key pumping station at Az Zubayr, a manifold and metering station on the Faw peninsula and the offshore crude oil export facilities had been secured. These preserve 85 percent of the function of the fields, it added. "The Min al Bakr export facility was captured intact and in working order," the statement said. "Currently, all six major GOSPs are being evaluated in order to determine what work is needed to make the area safe to begin pumping oil again." © 2003 Reuters

Capped in 30 45 days Denies oil fires Douse southern fires { March 22 2003 } Firefighters tackle last oil fires { March 31 2003 } Gulf war vet admits setting fires Iraq denies basra fires { March 20 2003 } Iraqi oil fires sabotage fears { March 21 2003 } Multiple oil wells ablaze { March 21 2003 } Oil focus { March 24 2003 } Us military start 1991 fires Files Listed: 10

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