The well in Siberia’s Irkutsk region caught fire on May 30 and authorities called in the army on Friday MOSCOW: Russia said on Monday it had successfully put out a fire at a Siberian oil well after officials called in the military to shoot anti-tank artillery shells at the wellhead from a distance in order to quell the flames. The well in Siberia’s Irkutsk region, operated by a subsidiary of the Irkutsk Oil Company, caught fire on May 30 and authorities called in the army on Friday. #WATCH: #Russia"s military fires anti-tank gun at oil well to put out blaze at oil plant in #Siberiahttps://t.co/CtL6FVaNeI pic.twitter.com/ovHLKpbxc0 — Arab News (@arabnews) June 8, 2020 (Video: Russia"s Ministry of Defense Facebook) Soldiers flew in an MT-12 Rapira anti-tank weapon to the remote site in Siberia and, working at night, fired rounds at the wellhead from 180 meters away in order to break it from the well, the Russian Defense Ministry said. “This helped set up the blowout prevention equipment to then seal the well and put out the fire,” it said in a statement circulated along with footage of the operation. Soldiers in full military body armor and helmets — as well as coronavirus face masks — could be seen dragging the heavy feet of the weapon apart in order to set it up before shooting artillery rounds. The fire happened at a new field that accounted for just a tiny fraction of Irkutsk Oil Company’s overall output. In 2018, the company produced 9 million tons of oil and gas condensate.