Work to extinguish a blaze at a Bahrain oil well is scheduled to begin on Saturday, it was revealed yesterday.

US-based fire-fighting firm Wild Well Control will take between four to five days to put out the blaze, depending on Bahrain's climate, according to officials.

The company was one of three contacted by Kuwait Oil Company to regain control of its fields of raging well fires in 1991 following Iraq's invasion. It capped more than 130 wells in eight months.

Two specialists from the firm, based in Houston, are currently assisting Bapco's emergency response team, Civil Defence and National Guard teams to bring the fire at Well 380 under control.

The firm has already brought in specialised equipment from its base in Abu Dhabi yesterday and more fire-fighters are scheduled to arrive in Bahrain tomorrow.

It will unload and set-up equipment on Thursday and Friday.

The well was hit last Friday by a heavy transport vehicle while it was moving equipment during maintenance work.

The gas seepage from the well caught fire last Saturday afternoon.

"The well will be capped and filled with substances to stop the leak, then rehabilitation work will be carried on the well," said a Bapco spokesman.

"This is one of Bahrain's low producing wells so it will not have any major effect on the country's gas and oil production.

"The estimated cost of the damage or losses to Bapco may come to around $10,000 (BD3,780) a day," he revealed.

"What is burning is only five million standard cubic feet of gas and 20 barrels of crude oil per day.

"The company's operations are comprehensively insured against all accidents and damages associated with them.

"The damage caused to the environment, compared to the gas burning at the power stations or that emitted from diesel trucks in the country, is also very limited."

The spokesman said the area was cordoned off to keep the public away from the well site, behind Alba. - TradeArabia News Service