The Corps of Engineers has awarded a contract to Kellogg Brown & Root to carry out a plan to assess and put out oil well fires in Iraq and also to repair damaged petroleum infrastructure there. KBR, a unit of Halliburton Co., announced the award on March 24, but declined to disclose the contract's value.

KBR says it is subcontracting the firefighting work to Boots & Coots International Well Control Inc. and Wild Well Control Inc., both based in Houston.

KBR wouldn't specify how much or what type of equipment it is using for the work, but did say nine cargo plane loads of equipment have been "mobilized to the region" so far for the task. It also says all the oil well fires should be extinguished in 240 days.

In November, under an Army Logistics Civil Augmentation Program contract, the Dept. of Defense asked KBR to put together a contingency plan for Iraq oilfield firefighting and repairing petroleum facilities. The firm now is carrying out the plan through a separate contract from the Corps. KBR says that new contract "will be used for an interim period" until the Corps issues "additional contracts to provide a broad range of services required to support full execution of the contingency plan."