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Post-Christmas Coup. All this will take costly time. Because GT2 is the Sahara's first fire, equipment that is readily available in other fields has to be flown in from England, France and the U.S. Meantime, a well has to be drilled 2,600 ft. down to water-bearing sands to provide the 40,000 gallons needed daily to shield the firemen and to dampen the area around GT2 in order to prevent sparks from relighting the fire before the gas flow is plugged. While these preliminaries are going on, Adair will continue to pop around the world taking care of other troublesome wells. But he will be back by Christmas, confidently plans to administer the coup de grace to the Gassi Touil fire in early January, and then submit to the oil companies a bill that, including expenses, will run to several million dollars. "After talking to Adair," commented one Paris newsman last week, "my impression is that GT2 doesn't have a chance."
*Oilmen's "mud," which is actually a suspension of clay and various chemicals in water, differs in formula depending on whether it is being used to lubricate a drill bit, float rock chips out of the way of the bit, or seal a shaft against blast. To plug a well, "weighted mud" of powdered clay and barium sulfates mixed to the consistency of cake batter is used.