FLAMING OIL TORCH

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 131, 29 November 1929, Page 18

FLAMING OIL TORCH

BTJENS OVER 100 DAYS

ALL EFFORTS USELESS

For more than, a hundred days '' the torch of Moroni," a burning geyser of oil, has illuminated the countryside, even to tho capital, 60 miles away from "AVell IGO, Moroni-Standard," writes the New York "Times" correspondent at Bukarcst.

All eflorts to extinguish the flames have been in vain so far and thousands of dollars' worth of oil and gas are being consumed every day,, many lives have been lost, and there remains the danger of the fire spreading to hundreds of nearby wells..

Moreni is a small village in the heart of the Rumanian oil1 district, which yearly produces 4,282,377 tons of crude petroleum, one-sixth of the world's output. After years of surface exploitation, the large companies, including the Standard, the Romano-American, and the Dutch Shell, recently began extensive subterranean digging, and it Was; from Well IGO, now a roaring pillar offlames and smoke, that the Standard had anticipated a huge supply a little more than three months ago. The digging had been completed, pumps and pipes had been laid and everything was prepared for the first gush from a depth of 1453 metres. •

..' Everything went w6ll, albeit the initial .burst was so terrific that the villagers and- engineers, although used to ■happenings of this kind, were anxious. The-pressure, was 200 atmospheres, and the first shock carried light, machinery ana structural scaffolding 'hundreds of feet into the air to bo scattered as so much debris. Five minutes later workmen and engineers ran in all directions. The pillar of gas and oil had become duo of fir© and smoke, so forbidding that it was futile to attempt to get anywhere near it. The steel and wooden towers of. six near-by wells ignited almost instantly, and were consumed or transformed into writhing metal skeletons. . . . • ■ ■

■ While the red, black, and yellow torch of Moreni is seen day and night within a radius of many miles, 40,000,----000 cubic ■ feet of- gas have been destroyed since the well caught fire. All methods of extinguishing the blaze have so far proved useless. First an: attempt was made too put out the fire, by means of a huge iron bell weighing' many tons, but this was blown into i the air and shattered and torn as if it had been a paper hat. The next step was to tunnel, in order that the gas and oil path might be diverted to a new course. Tbe^ first tunnel was blown, in, and four vrorkmen were killed. A second tunnel was likewise blown in and three more workers were killed. For the third time engineers are now.

directing the work of digging a tunnel

250 metres away from the burning well and some 80 metres deep. They hope to

divert the underground gases before they can be ignited, and thus not only save

the well itself, but practically the- entire district.

All sorts of fantastic plans have been received from individuals who declare they know how to extinguish tho fire.. They suggest pumping vinegar, throwing asphyxiating bombs, and employing many sorts of intricate machinery to save the well. The danger is, however, that should the fire be put out, tho entire valley would become a charged bomb, which might explode at any time and entirely annihilate the valley. The hope that remains is for some engineer to devise a means for cutting the "main" and thus arresting the flow of gas until new efforts and methods of ..digging- can be-employed.- -'--