GOM Oil Spill - BP Stops Oil Leak

[WeatherLovingDoc]

Live on CNN, BP has determined ice crystal hydrates have formed up at the top of the dome, and so oil can not get through this formed slush as planned. The dome could be brought back up to the surface and the slush removed, but the problem remains how to prevent hydrates from forming. One BP proposal given at the live update was possibly methanol injection, and another to add warming within the dome.

Edit: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gulf_oil_spill

[Sanibel]

Sounds like they gave the ice crystals a cold solid object on which to form. The technical fix probably isn't that difficult. Like fireproof heater coils or something.


What I'm worried about is the blowout preventer indicator showing it is activated is giving a correct reading and that the preventer closed. And that the problem is the hole is open outside the pipe from a failed cementing job. I think that would be uncorrectable.



http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6442#more

[WeatherLovingDoc]

Good read Sanibel. Tad complicated for this weatherlovingdoc though. Here is a new satellite picture of the spill, but look real close for the red line by going to the link and then clicking on it's picture for magnification.




Gulf Oil Spill: Expert Analysis of Spread & Impact
By Chang Lee
Epoch Times Staff May 8, 2010

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/34992/

[WeatherLovingDoc]

SYNOPSIS FOR THE GULF OF MEXICO
430 PM CDT SAT MAY 08 2010

.SYNOPSIS...A STATIONARY FRONT FROM SE LOUISIANA TO INLAND
CENTRAL TEXAS WILL MOVE SE AS A DISSIPATING COLD FRONT E OF 89W
OVERNIGHT...WHILE THE WESTERN PORTION OF THE FRONT LIFTS BACK N
AS A WARM FRONT THROUGH SUN NIGHT AS STRONG HIGH PRES BUILDS SE
ACROSS THE REGION. THE COMBINATION OF THE HIGH AND LOW PRES OVER
TEXAS AND NE MEXICO WILL TIGHTEN THE PRES GRADIENT AND PRODUCE
INCREASING WINDS AND SEAS ACROSS THE WESTERN AND MIDDLE GULF MON
AND SPREAD ACROSS THE REMAINDER OF THE AREA MON NIGHT THROUGH
WED...THE WEAKEN OVER MOST SECTIONS ON THU AS HIGH PRES SETTLES
OVER THE NE GULF.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/MIAOFFNT4.shtml

[arkess7]

So SAD!!!

[Dionne]

Live on CNN, BP has determined ice crystal hydrates have formed up at the top of the dome, and so oil can not get through this formed slush as planned. The dome could be brought back up to the surface and the slush removed, but the problem remains how to prevent hydrates from forming. One BP proposal given at the live update was possibly methanol injection, and another to add warming within the dome.

Edit: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gulf_oil_spill

We used methanol to remove moister from the vertical support members on the natural gas injector in Prudhoe Bay. Methanol works just fine so long as the ambient temperature is 52F or below. The flash point for methanol is 12C/53.6F. How deep is the 52F thermocline? How are they going to keep the methanol in a liquid state until it reaches a safe temperature? Only one way.....a pressurized loop. Which in itself is yet another engineering nightmare.

[NDG]

SW LA into the upper TX coast should be concerned about the oil slick possibly moving into their coast, through the next 6 days NOAA ocean currents forecast model keeps an East to West current along the LA coast to eastern TX coast.
The media keeps talking about it affecting FL east coast but what about SW LA & TX coast? IMO it has a greater chance of affecting that area in the short term than of it getting into the loop current.

[WeatherLovingDoc]

Compliments of Jag95, Skyhawk, and SunnyThoughts, who have already alerted us to these sites:

"Here's one of the more informative articles I've read about what's being done."

http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article214534.ece

http://drillingclub.proboards.com

http://www.theoildrum.com/


Edit: corrected link

[WeatherLovingDoc]

SW LA into the upper TX coast should be concerned about the oil slick possibly moving into their coast, through the next 6 days NOAA ocean currents forecast model keeps an East to West current along the LA coast to eastern TX coast.
The media keeps talking about it affecting FL east coast but what about SW LA & TX coast? IMO it has a greater chance of affecting that area in the short term than of it getting into the loop current

Trueisms gave a link to this valuable and eye opener animated simulation map on where the oil may go. I didn't realize it was automatically updating, obviously reflecting wind, ocean currents. Check out how far west the RTOFS (Atlantic) suggests damage (bottom right of four concurrent simulations.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill trajectory ensemble forecast from different numerical models

http://ocg6.marine.usf.edu/~liu/oil_spill_ensemble_forecast.html

[WeatherLovingDoc]

This is the worst video by far I have seen, entitled "The Gulf Appears to be Bleeding", posted tonight on southernstudies.org. You may wish to put off viewing until tomorrow, and then think about what each we can individually do to help. As the author says, there is no way to stop the oil from coming, but it may be possible to lessen it's impact.

I heard a word the other day applied to this Gulf Oil pollution, "ecoterrorism", right in our own back yard. See the video at the link should you wish, but know ahead, it is depressing.

http://www.southernstudies.org/2010/05/the-gulf-appears-to-be-bleeding-video.html

[Sanibel]

Seems to me they should be able to drill a second hole that intersects the leaking well hole in less than 60-90 days. Isn't there side-drilling, directional-drilling that can change directions underground? So why should it take so long to dig the relief well? Can't they just dig a second well that intersects the leaking well, say, 400 feet beneath the sea surface? If they did that they could cement the hole and stop the whole thing cold.

I don't get it.

[SunnyThoughts]

A great place to ask questions, and watch experts text their ideas concerning this disaster....Theoildrum.com Very informative, and many experts who have years and years expeirence in the engineering of these wells.

[gtalum]

I'm guessing that drilling the relief well is a lot more complicated than drilling a normal well. They have to hit a very small target (the existing well shaft) from thousands of feet away.

[WeatherLovingDoc]

BP at High Noon: "pen and paper only" press conference as reported by Robert L. Cavnar of The Daily Hurricane:


BP Press Conference: "Top Hat", "Junk Shots", and "Top Kill"

By eljefebob on May 10, 2010 12:45 PM

"I'm listening to BP's Monday noon press conference in Houston as engineers are describing current operations and plan to get the blowout well killed. It's the most informative and open conversation I've heard since this accident occurred, and demonstrates, finally, the depth of the analysis and work that we all knew has been going on behind the scenes. Unfortunately, this was a "pen and paper" press conference where cameras were not allowed even though they used visual aids. Odd. A few new facts, though:...."

http://dailyhurricane.com/2010/05/bp-press-conference-top-hat-junk-shots-and-top-kills.html

[WeatherLovingDoc]

US Government approves use of Methanol:

BP turns to methanol in oil spill recovery efforts

10 May 2010 22:23 [Source: ICIS news]

Larger dome failsHOUSTON (ICIS news)--The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has given BP permission to use methanol to prevent the formation of crystalised gas hydrates in its efforts to stop the oil leak in the US Gulf of Mexico, the company’s chief executive said on Monday.

BP was unsuccessful last week in its attempt to contain the underwater leak with a 40-foot-tall (12-metre) steel and concrete vault when crystalised gas hydrates formed inside the container, plugging the top where the oil would have been siphoned out.

BP now planned to use a much smaller container to put over the leak, which was roughly 5,000 feet under water.

Methanol would be pumped to the container to prevent the freezing that clogged pipes of the larger box, CEO Tony Hayward said.

Methanol is frequently used as a de-icer.

“The rationale for a smaller dome is there will be less sea water in the smaller dome, and thus less likely to have hydrate formation,” Hayward said at a press briefing in Houston. “And we have got approval to use methanol injections to aid the deployment of the small dome.”

The smaller container was 5-feet-tall with a 4-foot diameter, or about the size of a barrel of oil cut in half, Hayward said. Company officials referred to it as a “top hat”.

Temperatures at the subsea level, where the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon offshore rig sank following its 20 April explosion, were about 30°F (-1°C), company officials estimated.

“This is the first time the industry has had to confront this at this water depth,” Hayward said. “But this is a very serious situation for BP, and we will resolve it.”

The situation was complicated by the presence of a higher gas-to-oil ratio than expected, the company said.

“There was a lot more gas involved than we had been led to believe,” Hayward said.

The smaller container would be launched by Thursday at the latest, BP said.

Immediately after, the company would send a “junk shot” of materials - including golf balls, tyre pieces, rope knots and cement - into the pipe, in hopes of sealing off the flow"....

http://www.icis.com/Articles/2010/05/10/9358065/bp-turns-to-methanol-in-oil-spill-recovery-efforts.html

[JonathanBelles]

I was on Treasure Island tonight north of the Bilmar. No oil or smell of oil at the time that we were there.

[psyclone]

we're not going to get oil smell here unless we have a long west/west northwest fetch, a tall order this time of year. since the blast i have only smelled oil here twice... once shortly after the disaster and then again this past saturday. a prevailing east and southeast wind the next several days will keep us out of the oil smell zone.

[Sanibel]

we're not going to get oil smell here unless we have a long west/west northwest fetch, a tall order this time of year. since the blast i have only smelled oil here twice... once shortly after the disaster and then again this past saturday. a prevailing east and southeast wind the next several days will keep us out of the oil smell zone.

A few years ago they did a test using hundreds of floats to see what would happen in an oil spill accident. Offshore here was the only place in the Gulf where no floats ended up. However this leak is so bad that eventually everyone will get something.

[Dionne]

Sounds like BP has the go ahead to push methanol while descending......I read nothing about circulating. I say let them try......we have nothing to lose.

[Stephanie]

Sounds like BP has the go ahead to push methanol while descending......I read nothing about circulating. I say let them try......we have nothing to lose.

I agree.