Around 4 p.m on
February 3rd 2003, gas well No. 331 Iancu Jianu began to erupt gas and salt
water and caught fire. The flame reach almost 100 meters high and was visible
from several kilometers. The well was spud in 1966 at a depth of 2435 meters on
Iancu Jianu commercial field, located near the commune of Iancu Jianu, Olt
county, and it was closed for two years.
"We tried to stop the uncontrolled gas eruptions, but we didn't succeed. The well ignited due to the friction of the rocks in the deposit. Now we are making efforts to extinguish the flame, but it is very difficult because the road is difficult to access, on a slope, and the machines only go up if a bulldozer goes ahead of them to level the road", said Ion Calotescu, director of SNP Petrom - Craiova.
The decision was to drill a well, close to the one that caught fire, in order to reach the gas deposit. The rescue well, called 331 Bis Iancu Jianu, was drilled, at a distance of 90 meters away from the fire. The idea was to capture the gases and then to flood the layer with salt water and drilling mud. The final depth of the rescue well was 980 meters. The firefighters from the "Matei Basarab" Fire Brigade from Slatina, who were also involved in the well extinguishing operations, explained that, at the time of the loss of the drilling fluid, a phenomenon that occurred at a depth of 957 m, they continued to pump salt water and mud into the rescue well. This operation was followed by the pumping of 30 tons of special cement into the well. The fire from gas well No. 331 Iancu Jianu was finally liquidated on Wednesday, March 12, around 3:00 p.m.
The work to extinguish the fire lasted 37 days and was made much more difficult by the unfavorable weather, but also by the hard-to-reach area. During all this time, there have been no ecological accidents and no human casualties, the gas eruption being permanently kept under control by the specialists of the SNP Petrom.2003-02-05%20%20nr.%202413.PNG)
Gazeta de Sud, februarie 2003 (Anul 9, nr. 2410-2433), 2003-02-05 nr. 2413
"We tried to stop the uncontrolled gas eruptions, but we didn't succeed. The well ignited due to the friction of the rocks in the deposit. Now we are making efforts to extinguish the flame, but it is very difficult because the road is difficult to access, on a slope, and the machines only go up if a bulldozer goes ahead of them to level the road", said Ion Calotescu, director of SNP Petrom - Craiova.
Fig.1 Gas well No. 331 Iancu Jianu on fire
The decision was to drill a well, close to the one that caught fire, in order to reach the gas deposit. The rescue well, called 331 Bis Iancu Jianu, was drilled, at a distance of 90 meters away from the fire. The idea was to capture the gases and then to flood the layer with salt water and drilling mud. The final depth of the rescue well was 980 meters. The firefighters from the "Matei Basarab" Fire Brigade from Slatina, who were also involved in the well extinguishing operations, explained that, at the time of the loss of the drilling fluid, a phenomenon that occurred at a depth of 957 m, they continued to pump salt water and mud into the rescue well. This operation was followed by the pumping of 30 tons of special cement into the well. The fire from gas well No. 331 Iancu Jianu was finally liquidated on Wednesday, March 12, around 3:00 p.m.
Fig. 2 & 3. Petroleum engineer Vasile Dragomir, manager at that time of Detubari Floresti, was involved in extinguishing operations.
The work to extinguish the fire lasted 37 days and was made much more difficult by the unfavorable weather, but also by the hard-to-reach area. During all this time, there have been no ecological accidents and no human casualties, the gas eruption being permanently kept under control by the specialists of the SNP Petrom.
2003-02-05%20%20nr.%202413.PNG)
Fig. 4. Latitude and longitude of location: 44.4829503,23.99937913
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Vasile Dragomir who provided the photos. Vasile is the author of an excellent blog (http://www.vasiledragomir.ro) with much more information on Romanian oil and gas history.
References
‘’Gazeta de Sud’’, 4 February 2003
‘’Gazeta de Sud’’, 5 February 2003
‘’Gazeta de Sud’’, 6 February 2003
‘’Gazeta de Sud’’, 14 March 2003
‘’Gazeta de Sud’’, 6 February 2003
‘’Gazeta de Sud’’, 14 March 2003
Figure Captions
Figure 1. Real photo. Gazeta de Sud collection
Figure 2. Real photo. Vasile Dragomir collection
Figure 3. Real photo. Vasile Dragomir collection
Figure 4. The location of well No. 331 Iancu Jianu