GOM Oil Spill - BP Stops Oil Leak

[Brent]

Oil hit the Alabama and NW Florida beaches today and it infuriates and saddens me.

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/06/oil_fro ... baldw.html

[WeatherLovingDoc]

Morning All,
Perhaps some new activity on the CAP (due to leakage amount?) this morning per the informative blog, TOD:

"Just an update on what I am observing down there right now on the ROV cams. Seems they are prepping for another cap. Maybe. They have lowered, in a basket, what looks to me like another cap (this one numbered "5").

"Viking Poseidon ROV1 is tending the new cap at the moment. "
'Skandi #1 still spraying dispersant." (last night)

Here is a live composite feed from BP to watch the ROV's: http://mxl.fi/bpfeeds2/

Here is a good ongoing blog for moment to moment analysis and commentary:

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6562#comments_top

Finally, some food for thought:

"If Americans had been told repeatedly that a leaking well in 5000 feet of water produces an engineering challenge that eclipses the Apollo 13 challenge by a long shot, what percentage of Americans would have supported drill, baby, drill?

This is a hell of a way to learn about the engineering challenges."

[Sanibel]

I'm not seeing the pressure surges and bumping they were worried about. But the valves are still open.


Some might not understand that they can't just lock the Cap straight down on the Blowout Preventer because of pressure and gas surge issues. They're worried that gas surges would blast the Cap or Blowout Preventer open if they did that. So the dangling, methanol-infused Cap that sits and is able to bump away from surges is the best engineering compromise for the moment. It has to leak a little out the bottom because they can't induce full suction that would draw-in seawater and instantly create hydrate crystals. The engineers are caught in between some very difficult problems that don't have easy fixes.

Myself I would have tried to remove the old drill pipe and install a new one and mud the bottom of the well for a total kill. It makes sense to do that because if it doesn't work they could still go back to the Cap.



.

[vbhoutex]

Thanks for further explanations. I can now say it appears that maybe some progress is being made. Are there any numbers being published as to how much capture is being achieved? What is the white stuff that is being sprayed in and around the assembly?

[WeatherLovingDoc]

I believe BP states about 10% of the daily leakage may be about the amount they will collect on board (saw 1890 barrels or so, with most feeling at least 19,000 barrels/day leakage conservatively). As to the white liquid, it may be the dispersant.

Sanibel, right, too tight and the whole BOP could blow.

Keeping hopeful, but crying for our wildlife and sea creatures in addition to the good people of the GOM.

[vbhoutex]

I believe BP states about 10% of the daily leakage may be about the amount they will collect on board (saw 1890 barrels or so, with most feeling at least 19,000 barrels/day leakage conservatively). As to the white liquid, it may be the dispersant.

Sanibel, right, too tight and the whole BOP could blow.

Keeping hopeful, but crying for our wildlife and sea creatures in addition to the good people of the GOM.

Amen to that!! I am sickened by what I am seeing. Topping that off is the fact that BP NA headquarters are here in Houston and if things continue as they are there will likely be thousands of layoffs there, which will directly impact some of my friends as well as the Houston economy. It won't be just BP that is hit, but many subsidiary companies that rely on the big boys for their livelihoods. As much as I BP needs major punishment for this the thought is tempered by the above. Of course we already have thousands along the GOM coast who have already lost their livelihoods for who knows how long. Many may never recover. I just want to cry when I think about the overall ramifications of this HORRENDOUS TRAGEDY!!

[gtalum]

At one point yesterday they were collecting the equivalent of 8000 bpd, which is probably nearly half the flow. They are slowly ramping up production form the top hat, and it's at least partially successful. The top hat will never collect all of the flow, but a lot of folks over at theoildrum.com think it can ultimately collect 80%-90% of the flow once they start pulling some of the flow through the old choke and kill lines. That will still leave up to 2k barrels per day leakage, but it's better off than we are now. The relief wells are the key. The flow will probably be stopped in August or September.

[WeatherLovingDoc]

Found this:

"From BP's Gulf of Mexico Response page (as of 9AM CDT):

Subsea operational update:

• The LMRP cap was placed on top of the LMRP at approximately 8:35 pm CDT on June 3.
• Gas first reached the Discoverer Enterprise at approximately 11:00 pm CDT on June 3; oil followed at approximately 11:10 pm CDT.
• On June 4, a total of 6,077 barrels of oil was collected and 15.7 million standard cubic feet of natural gas was flared.
• Optimization continues and improvement in oil collection is expected over the next several days.

June 5, 2010 9:00 am CDT

http://www.bp.com/extendedsectiongeneri ... &content...

[Ptarmigan]

I wonder if they will ever find the 11 people who died? I doubt it, but for the sake of their family.

I feel this has been overlooked, the family of the 11 workers who died from the explosion and oil spill.
http://blogs.chron.com/txpotomac/2010/0 ... texas.html

[HurricaneBill]

I wonder if they will ever find the 11 people who died? I doubt it, but for the sake of their family.

I think the 11 who died were probably close to the explosion when it happened. Given the intensity of the fire, they'll probably never be found.

[Sanibel]

The amount still gushing out of the Cap is unacceptable. I think the more truthful of the Oil Drum guys think 60% capture at best. This is no good.


Someone on Oil Drum asked if they could seal the Cap onto the Blowout Preventer flange and use one-way relief valves to vent the surges. This sounds like a simple solution that would work. A lot of those pros on Oil Drum think they're hot stuff but they don't answer basic questions like that one. This relief valve Cap would capture most of the oil without any gushing spill-over. If there was too much flow to handle they could split the Riser and add another processing ship.

This is basic stuff and the BP effort is ********.

[Ptarmigan]

Two relief wells were drilled for Ixtoc 1 and it continued to release oil for another three months. Ixtoc 1 was in 160 feet of water.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ixtoc_I_oil_spill

Deepwater Horizon is in 5,000 feet of water and it is likely more than one relief well will be used and it is no guarantee it will stop it since deep water has higher pressure.
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jun/05 ... s-20100606

[Aquawind]

The Latest from the Coast Guard..

Fryar said the company funneled about 250,000 gallons of oil in the first 24 hours from a containment cap, installed on the well, to a drilling ship on the ocean surface.

On Saturday, BP had increased the amount of oil it was funneling to about 420,000 gallons, Allen said. Federal authorities estimate that 798,000 gallons of crude are gushing into the sea every day.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/06/gulf.o ... tml?hpt=T2

[Sanibel]

I think that would make around 29,000 barrels a day from the well. Somewhat above the original 5,000.



They are definitely being too prissy about capturing all that oil. I've seen suggestions that are feasible but aren't being implimented. What I think we are seeing is an ugly approximation by BP between the worst case costs to the company if their containment efforts backfire and what they can get away with at minimum cost.

[Dencolo]

I think that would make around 29,000 barrels a day from the well. Somewhat above the original 5,000.



They are definitely being too prissy about capturing all that oil. I've seen suggestions that are feasible but aren't being implimented. What I think we are seeing is an ugly approximation by BP between the worst case costs to the company if their containment efforts backfire and what they can get away with at minimum cost.

Hopefully they can get the recovery rate to the 80% range - else I'd like to see other options.

As far as feasible suggestions, you or anyone else with suggestions can call the BP hotline at 281-366-5511 (the suggestion hotline). One in a million that they'd tank scientific suggestions, but it could be worth a shot. What you're most likely to learn is that most suggestions are great on paper, but in reality don't take into consideration the complexity of the situation. I think a lot of people may try to oversimplify a solution, but they should take all the help they can get.

[WeatherLovingDoc]

NEW ORLEANS — "As officials reported a gradual increase in the amount of oil being captured from the spewing wellhead at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, BP PLC said Monday that it plans next month to replace the cap collecting the crude with a slightly bigger device.

The newer cap will "provide a better, tighter fit" than the current one collecting roughly one-third to three-fourths of the oil gushing daily from the sea floor, company spokesman Robert Wine told The Associated Press. But it will also allow the oil now being collected to again spew out into the Gulf during the changeover.

The oil began gushing after a BP oil rig explosion April 20 and recently increased in volume after officials sheared off the top of the damaged outflow pipe as part of the latest containment effort. BP believes the bigger cap will fit over more of the pipe than the current cap.

The current device is collecting about 466,200 gallons of oil per day, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen..."
(AP Press, June 7, 2010)

I've been off line for a few days, so am eager to read up. Heard conservative estimate by BP of 950,000 gallons per day spewing forth just to give some insight on the above 466,000 number mentioned above...

WLD

[Dencolo]

http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_interne ... ing_v2.pdf

Slide show update of what the next steps in the process are. Looks like as of this morning they are collecting about 15K barrels per day. Only 1 of four vents are closed so I suspect significant oil is still leaking.

Also, below is a link to what appears to be BPs relay of what went wrong to Washingston (nearly a 20 MB file). It's pretty technical, but you can clearly see the mistakes that were made starting on around slide 17, when they started tranferring mud to a boat during operations. Fluid going into a well should equal fluid coming out of a well. When you are simultaneously tranferring fluid to a boat, you can no longer measure this balance. So if the well is starting to blow out (more fluid coming back), you won't notice in the early stages.

More mistakes were made but in the end BP really tries to relay the fact that the BOPs failed.

The way I see it is this. If a driver (BP) decides to get drunk and crashes his car into a pole and the airbags fail to go off (Transocean BOPs), who is to blame? My response is mostly the driver (BP) since they aren't taking appropriate actions. But other parties did play a role in the disaster and must also share some of the blame.

http://energycommerce.house.gov/documen ... tation.pdf

[Sanibel]

Don't hold me to this but I would check out if Simmons is doing deliberate disinformation about major leaks on the seafloor etc in order to make the public think the wellbore is compromised and teetering on bursting. I don't think it is - because the pressure looks good from the strong flow coming out of it. I suspect if Simmons was used to spread disinformation that the wellbore was on the brink of collapsing it would make people less likely to question the efforts.

[Dionne]

I watched Andersen Cooper interview 5 TransOcean rig survivors. The well had indeed "kicked" while the riser contained drill mud. BP ordered the changeover from drill mud to seawater. This order created an argument on deck. Workers called it a "short cut". This is what caused the initial release of the methane bubble and subsequent blow out. The men interviewed watched as their friends burned to death. Very difficult interview to watch and even harder for the survivors.

[Aquawind]

(CNN) -- Federal authorities have given BP 72 hours to come up with sound contingency plans for the collection of gushing oil in the event of an operational failure or severe weather.

In a letter written Tuesday, the government's on-scene administrator, Coast Guard Rear Adm. James Watson, instructed BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles to lay out a process for the continuous and safe recovery of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico.

"BP shall provide the plans for these parallel, continuous, and contingency collection processes, including an implementation timeline, within 72 hours of receiving this letter," Watson wrote. "Current collection efforts may not be interrupted to implement these plans."

On Capitol Hill, oil drilling issues took center stage on Day 51 of the disaster as lawmakers debated everything from safety to cleanup to liability.

Meanwhile, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said Wednesday that a little more than 15,000 barrels of oil -- more than 630,000 gallons -- were recovered from the ruptured BP well in the 24-hour period ending at midnight Tuesday.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/09/gulf.o ... tml?hpt=T2

About Time..