Although Daniel B. Walzel was too young to participate in DesertStorm, the drilling engineer for Boots and Coots International WellControl, had an opportunity to fight oil well fires duringOperation Iraqi Freedom.
Walzel, who has worked with the company for a year and returnedfrom Iraq three days ago, spoke to students in the Fondren ScienceBuilding on Tuesday.
Boots and Coots is one of the top companies in the world forfighting oil well fires.
After the CIA contacted the company in February 2001, Boots andCoots signed a gag order agreement with the agency to plan howoperations would be conducted during a war.
“It was essential that plans be in place in case Husseinwent through with the type of terrorism in Iraq that he haddemonstrated in Kuwait in 1991,” Walzel said. “In 1991Hussein sabotaged 780 wells. There are over 2,000 wells inIraq.”
The company developed different scenarios of what could happen.Forty wells would be torched in the best case; 1,414 wells would beset on fire in the worst case; and 464 wells would be destroyed inthe most probable scenario.
The actual damage did not approach the severity of the”best case” prediction.
“Hundreds of wells were rigged for detonation,”Walzel said. “I’ve only seen 12 damaged and fourburned, so far. It’s partly because of planning, butit’s mostly because the people of Iraq just did not havetheir hearts into the destruction of their own futurejobs.”
One of the burning wells dumped approximately $1.7 million worthof oil on the ground a day for the four days that it took to putout the fire. Firefighters sprayed hundreds of thousands of gallonsof water per minute onto the fires and the surrounding area to keepit cool. Firemen worked in 180-degree temperature, and alliedtroops patrolled zones around the areas to ensure thefiremen’s safety.
“Although there were many challenges, we were always wellprotected and confident in our safety,” he said.
Walzel plans on returning to Iraq on Dec. 13.