The Time the Soviet Union Used a Nuclear Bomb to Seal a Gas Well (1966)

Fires caused by Fires caused by oil and gas leaks are among the biggest and most dangerous challenges for experts. In many cases, using explosives is the best way to extinguish the flames, but in September 1966, the Soviet Union had to take things a step further. After burning for more than a thousand days, a gas well in the Urta-Bulak region met its end thanks to a nuclear bomb with a yield of 30 kilotons…

If you look for historical examples of oil fires, the first results will likely lead you to the Gulf War. Iraqi forces destroyed about 700 wells on average (with military and political reasons in between), and engineers from over half a dozen companies needed eleven months to control the chaos.

The traditional way to extinguish these fires is, surprisingly, similar to blowing out a candle... except that the "blow" is handled by explosives. However, there are times when using dynamite or another explosive is not feasible. One such case lasted 1074 days at the remote Urta-Bulak gas field, located about 80 kilometers from Bukhara, the fifth most populated city in Uzbekistan.

The temperature near the fire was so high that efforts to drill a parallel well had to stop about 100 meters from the target (some sources say 50, others 150). The amount of TNT needed to bridge that gap would have been enormous, not to mention that the parallel well would need a much larger diameter. In other words, a lack of power and space. The video doesn't do the flames justice, but they were estimated to reach a height of 70 meters.

And that's when the nuclear bomb comes in. Specially designed, with an estimated yield of 30 kilotons (twice Hiroshima) and cooled as it was lowered into the well, the bomb exploded on September 30, 1966. Less than a minute later, those present confirmed the success of the operation. The blast wave of the explosion was strong enough to overcome the distance between the two wells and block the gas leak.

Of course, other sources question its use, noting that similar results could be achieved with conventional explosives. But from what we've been able to find out, that wasn't the only time Russia detonated nuclear bombs to control well fires...