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THE OIL FIELDS: American and Kuwaiti firefighters tried unsuccessfully Monday to douse the two remaining blazes at booby-trapped oil wells in Iraq's Rumeila South oil field. A team from Boots & Coots International Well Control did not have enough water Monday, while Kuwaiti firefighters were unable to contain a fire at a damaged well head nearby. Both teams planned to try again Tuesday.

Firefighters already extinguished five fires in Rumeila South just north of the Kuwait-Iraq border and one of Iraq's biggest oil fields.

Iraqis who previously worked at the field have already started returning to ask for their jobs back and are being screened by the military, said Boots & Coots president, Brian Krause.

In northern Iraq, Kurdish fighters took control Sunday of more territory left by Iraqi forces withdrawing toward the major oil center of Kirkuk. It was the third significant withdrawal by Iraqis in the area since Thursday. Kirkuk is the nation's No. 2 oil-producing region after the Rumeila fields.

THE MARKET: Crude oil futures rose Monday. On London's International Petroleum Exchange, North Sea Brent futures for May delivery gained 80 cents at $27.15 a barrel in late trading. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, the May contract for U.S. light, sweet crude rose 34 cents to US$30.50 a barrel in afternoon trading.

photo credit and caption:

Iraqis ride camels as the Rumeila oil plant is burns in southern Iraq, Sunday, March. 30, 2003. Only seven wells were lit on fire at the Rumeila field by explosives the U.S. military says were set by Iraqis _ a far cry from the more than 700 oil wells retreating Iraqi forces damaged or destroyed in Kuwait in the first Gulf War. (AP Photo/ Yonhap, Jin Sung-chul)

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