How to Wreck an Oil Well

Ever since the Nazis started streaking like fire toward Russia's oilfields, observers have wondered: How do you wreck an oil well?

An oil well is a deep, narrow, steel-lined hole in the ground. To destroy a well permanently, the steel casing must be damaged beyond repair, the shaft hopelessly plugged, or the oil supply itself dissipated. Anything else is temporary--fires can be put out, pumps and surface apparatus replaced.

There are a number of techniques for doing these things, each of which has its disadvantages:

> Drowning is slowest, most effective, most difficult. Mud and water forced down the well shaft under great pressure clog the subterranean oil channels, back the oil right into the rock formations.

> Dynamiting is quickest, most tricky. A properly placed charge will warp, rip and twist the steel casing, letting in water and sand. Improperly placed, the charge will waste its strength by blowing up and down the well shaft.

> Hard-set reinforced concrete makes the best plug--a two-inch steel pipe lowered into the hole, and packed inside and out with cement. But concrete that is not reinforced can be drilled out like the filling of an old tooth.

> Junk, old tools and scrap dropped down the hole is an oldfashioned, strictly improvised method. Fishing out broken equipment is one of the mudcats' arts--a timetaker, but not too difficult.

Each of these methods may ruin an oil well for months. In most cases, the quickest way to reopen a thoroughly demolished well is to bore another shaft right beside the old one. This is a matter of weeks or months, depending on the toughness of the bedrock and depth of the oil. In the Russian fields, the bedrock is generally soft, the oil not far (often less than 1,000 feet) below the surface.

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