FLAMING OIL TORCH

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 822, 16 November 1929, Page 28

FLAMING OIL TORCH

WELL BURNS OYER 100 DAYS ALL EFFORTS USELESS For more than a hundred days "the torch of Moroni.” a burning geyser of oil. has illuminated the country side, even to the capital. 00 miles away from "Well 160. Moreni-Standanl." says a September message from the X, w York "Times' " correspondent at Bukharest. All efforts 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 near-by wells Moreni is a small village in the hart of the Rumanian oil district, which yearly produces 1.282.377 tons of crude petroleum, one-sixtli oi the world’s output. After years of surface exploitation, the large companies, including the Standard, the KoiuanoAmerican and the Dutch Shell, recently began extensive subterranean digging, and it was from 'Well 100. now a roaring pillar of flames 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 1.433 metres. Everything went well. albeit the initial burst was so terrific that the villages and engineers, although used to happenings of this kind. were anxious. The pressure was 200 atmospheres, and the first shock carried light machinery and structural scaffolds hundreds of feet into the air to be scattered as so much debris. Five minutes later workmen and engineers ran in all directions. The pillar of gas and oil had become one of fire and smoke, so forbidding that it was futile to attempt to get anywhere near

i; The steel and wooden towers of sin near by wells suited almost ip. stamlv and were consumed or 'ram! termed into writhing metal skeletons W hile the red. blaek and yellow tor. h of Moroni is seen day and night xv ilhin a radius of ntauv miles 40,000.000 cubic feet of gas have heel destroyed since the well caught fiAll methods of extinguishing tile blan. have so far proved useless. First an attempt was made to put out the fi Te by means of a huge iron bell » f |rk ing many tons, but this was blown into 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 he diverted to a new course. The first tunnel w a , blown in. or blown out. and f oc . workmen were killed. A second tunnel was likewise blown in and three mm. workers were killed For the third time engineers a, now directing the work of digging * tunnel .:>« metres away from til burning well and some t-o metres deep They hope to divert the underground mm. s before they can be ignited ami thus not only save the well itself but practically the entire district. ' 1 All sorts of fantastic plans have boon received from individuals win. declare they know how to extinguish the tire. They suggest pumping vine gar. 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. the entire vallev would become a charged bomb, which might explode at any time and en ! tirely 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 diggincan be employed