GOM Oil Spill - BP Stops Oil Leak

[WeatherLovingDoc]

Lot's of oil leaking now. Not a good situation.

http://www.cnn.com/video/flashLive/live.html?stream=2

[Aquawind]

I got a breaking news from twitter saying that the saw is stuck, I can't access twitter now on my phone or at work, can anyone confirm?

Yep Stuck Blade..

Yes indeed. Canada requires this I believe. Probably we in the US will soon too.

So Canada has a brain and the USA is @!@$$# STUPID! I wonder who the Oil Industry has paid to avoid spending that money for a second well.. This is criminal.

[somethingfunny]

So is oil now escaping into the Gulf at a faster rate thanks to that unfinished cut?

[gtalum]

I wonder who the Oil Industry has paid to avoid spending that money for a second well.. This is criminal.

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Everybody in DC, for decades. The oil industry is one of the biggest lobby groups in DC.

[Skyhawk]

Yes indeed. Canada requires this I believe. Probably we in the US will soon too.

So Canada has a brain and the USA is @!@$$# STUPID! I wonder who the Oil Industry has paid to avoid spending that money for a second well.. This is criminal.

Nope! You are misrepresenting the law.

http://www.1115.org/2010/06/01/the-long ... ent-179296

No I don’t know that “in Canada, when oil companies drill in the environmentally sensitive Arctic region, they are required to drill a relief well right along with the main well?”

They aren’t.

They are required to have the capability of drilling a relief well in the same season that the original well is made. (emphasis added)

https://www.one-neb.gc.ca/ll-eng/liveli ... ion=browse

Having the capability is not the same as actually doing it.

BP not only has the capability they are actually drilling two relief wells right now.

What people are forgetting is that it is just as probable for a relief well to blowout as it is for the main well. So if every well requires two relief wells you are tripling the probability of a blowout.

[gtalum]

What people are forgetting is that it is just as probable for a relief well to blowout as it is for the main well. So if every well requires two relief wells you are tripling the probability of a blowout.

Umm, no.

The relief wells could be kept a prescribed distance short of the production well. If the production well is capped without incident, the relief wells can be stopped hundreds of feet short of the reservoir and cemented. If there is instead a blowout in the production well, it would then be just a matter of days to complete the relief wells.

[Skyhawk]

The relief wells could be kept a prescribed distance short of the production well. If the production well is capped without incident, the relief wells can be stopped hundreds of feet short of the reservoir. If there is instead a blowout in the production well, it would then be just a matter of days to complete the relief wells.

Nope! Because of complex geology the "relief well" could hit a high pressure zone and blowout before the main well. Blowouts occur when something unexpected happens. They are not the routine.

[Skyhawk]

Yesterday I was talking with a geologist I work with about geology of the Gulf Of Mexico, and she gave me the following link that might be of interest.

http://www.geoexpro.com/hydrocarbo/megaprovince/

I found the following on traps and seals to be interesting:

Traps and Seals
The GOM is a mud-dominated basin. Seals are abundantly interleaved with potential reservoir facies. The complex depositional and structural architectures combine to create a diverse array of trap types. A short list of important trap types include basement structural highs, primary salt domes and turtle anticlines, growth faults and roll-over anticlines, complex faults, folds and discontinuities associated with salt canopies, basin-floor fold and thrust belts, sub-unconformity truncations, facies changes, and terminations against salt.

Like reservoir successions, structural features of the Gulf display great vertical extent (Fig. 3). The interplay between syn-depositional deformation and deposition enhanced the vertical stacking of reservoirs in the trapping structures. In general, the GOM may be thought of as a high-impedance basin. Pathways up and out of the very thick, structurally compartmentalized basin fill are laced with detours, delays, and dead ends.

[gtalum]

The relief wells could be kept a prescribed distance short of the production well. If the production well is capped without incident, the relief wells can be stopped hundreds of feet short of the reservoir. If there is instead a blowout in the production well, it would then be just a matter of days to complete the relief wells.

Nope! Because of complex geology the "relief well" could hit a high pressure zone and blowout before the main well. Blowouts occur when something unexpected happens. They are not the routine.

And of course, should one of the relief wells blow out it could be capped from the production well or the other relief well.

[Aquawind]

Even if releif wells are not technically required they are addressed in Canada and it seems the releif wells are the ultimate backup proceedure for deepwater. I guess the GOM is not considered enviromentaly sensative..another crock of crap..go to the GOM and tell me the enviroment isn't ruined, sensative or not.

Clearly we have been pushed around by the oil industry and thier lobbiest have done a good job creating loopholes and fighting laws to best protect the enviroment. Just because it's BP's opinion does not mean it's the fact of matter..they are probably a little bias I think. Money Money Money..they have sooo much to push and shove with.

So many fine line excuses while walking on legal thin ice. They simply should not be drilling into an enviroment if they are not prepared to cleanup the worse case scenario.

Thanks for the details Skyhawk..not sure about the quality of the source links you posted though.

[Category 5]

BP's entire board of directors should spend the rest of their lives in Russian gulags. But they won't get punished, because the Oil Companies basically own Washington.

Remember kids! If you have enough money, you can buy your way out of any sort of wrong doing. Whether it be murder, or destroying an entire industry plus an ecosystem because of your own incompetence

[thetruesms]

Thanks for the updates Doc!

I think instead of expanding drilling in the Gulf we need to suspend all deepwater development until they can prove they have a plan on how to deal with any leak in a deepwater enviroment. I mean as a industry and not just BP..

While it's clear the industry has failed it's equally clear the Gov't has failed in not asking and addressing that question prior. Exspecially with all of the money in the industry they can afford it.

It's so obvious it's stupid..They know what they are dealing with in materials and enviroment..They need to be prepared for when the pipe break in a odd way..

Amazing how clear the water is that far down in that live feed...

My concern is that what assumptions do you work into those scenarios? I'm sure it's entirely possible to construct an infinite number of scenarios to have to plan for, stopping any effort before it begins. Do you assume that people will ignore regulations and safety procedures, as it appears had a big role in this accident? If you're going to assume they'll break the law, why are you allowing them to continue in the first place? It seems simple, but I'm afraid it will quickly become a jump down the rabbit hole. This is going to require a lot of careful thought and planning to prevent future problems. Either that, or quit fossil fuels cold turkey.

There's a simple way to deal with this problem in the future: all deep-water wells (maybe all wells period?) should be drilled in parallel with a relief well (or maybe even 2). The relief well appears to be the only reliable method of capping a wild well in deep water.

Sounds like a great plan, but I see a couple issues. The complications of drilling one well, much less two or three simultaneously, have already been mentioned. But my bigger concern is this - if BP was insisting on cutting corners to try and get just one well back on schedule, how terrible would they be about getting two or three wells done on time? Oversight officials were lax in making sure rules were followed once, do we trust them to be more alert when their workload is doubled or tripled?

Perhaps further investigation will reveal otherwise, but it seems to me at this point that this is a failure of people, not science. That means going forward, I hope that we not only make sure any regulations ensure safety, but also make sure that those in oversight roles enforce them correctly, and that companies have incentive to follow the rules, rather than cut corners.

[Skyhawk]

Even if releif wells are not technically required they are addressed in Canada and it seems the releif wells are the ultimate backup proceedure for deepwater. I guess the GOM is not considered enviromentaly sensative..another crock of crap..go to the GOM and tell me the enviroment isn't ruined, sensative or not.

Actually BP's response more than meets both the letter and the spirit of the Canadian regulations. BP was drilling the first relief well within days. The other efforts were going on in parallel with the relief wells.

[Skyhawk]

BP's entire board of directors should spend the rest of their lives in Russian gulags. But they won't get punished, because the Oil Companies basically own Washington.

Can you point to any relevant violation of the law by the BP board that led to this accident? I can see a possible error in judgement by the company man who ordered the drilling mud be replaced by seawater when the pressure tests on the well were not conclusive, but even there I reserve judgement until I know all the facts. One can argue about the casing design, but it would appear to be a standard practice that worked in this environment, and there is no indication at this point that the casing was at fault.

It is easy to point fingers and second guess when you are not in a position to make decisions on which lives and property depend. Hindsight tends to be 20/20.

NASA has lost two Space Shuttle with the lose of life. Should the director of NASA be imprisoned? How about cabin secretaries or the President himself?

The petroleum engineering profession is a tough profession which by its very nature requires working blind. As we say the only rock we get to see, examine, and run tests on is rock that is no longer in the reservoir.

[WeatherLovingDoc]

BP/Coast Guard now saying that the saw blade has been freed up. Onward...

[Dionne]

Odd that no one anticipated a pinch during the cut? Maybe I missed something.

But everything is looking up......last I heard 74% of the GoM was open.

[Stephanie]

Can someone explain to me what the difference is between this new "top hat" and the old one that failed because of the ice crystals? How do we know that the same thing won't happen?

I don't know for sure but my guess would be that they have installed some sort of heating to keep the hydrates from forming. Honestly though I trust NOTHING that comes from BP!!!

I don't trust them either. Thanks David!

[Dencolo]

Can someone explain to me what the difference is between this new "top hat" and the old one that failed because of the ice crystals? How do we know that the same thing won't happen?

I don't know for sure but my guess would be that they have installed some sort of heating to keep the hydrates from forming. Honestly though I trust NOTHING that comes from BP!!!

I don't trust them either. Thanks David!

The old "top hat" was essentially an upside down funnel that surrounded the entire structure above the seafloor. At the top of the funnel was a pipe that would take oil to the surface.

What they are doing now is cutting a profile above the BOPS for a pipe to seal around. Less of a funnel and more of direct connect to the Riser. I think there are other leak points so if this works the well will be partially leaking until the relief well operations are done. This is not a kill operation, but rather a "collect what we can operation" to limit further spillage.

Regarding comments as to why not have secondary relief wells drilling simulatanous to normal wells. While on paper that might work, that would destroy the economics of the projects. Drilling is an expensive operation, and doubling your drilling cost would likely not be recouped by the oil production. If you are going to require that, you might as well shut down the GOM to drilling, as both would have the same affect.

[Stephanie]

Thanks for the explanation Dencolo.

[Cyclenall]

Just saw this on another site...sorry if it's already been posted.

Oil guru Matthew Simmons, who was on The Dylan Ratigan Show this afternoon warns there may be no way to stop the leak, and it could take 9000 days (over 24 years) for the gusher to end.

I saw something similar on an article by National Geographic. It stated the oil gusher could go on for many years if the relief well doesn't work out this August. I can't imagine what the Gulf would be like, it would most likely be the worst ecological disaster in world history and one of the costliest ever (in the hundreds of billions of dollars easily). The ripple effect would be immense and already is so being one of the worst in world history is not that far fetched. Some even think this could cause the recession to come back quickly .

I believe BP's assets should be seized and the company completely shut down by multiple entities. Normally I wouldn't believe in that but something this extreme might just call for it. Along with this, throw the morons who skipped out on safety and other safeguards in prison. After all, 11 people died by that rig explosion due to BP's crock of crap. Doing all of this should scare the heck out of other oil companies thinking of cutting corners and skipping on safety checks and the like. Use the money that BP has to fund all of the costs of this disaster (all ripple effects included) and for all the people out of work after BP is shut down (the innocent), give them a large sum each to help them along.

BP's entire board of directors should spend the rest of their lives in Russian gulags. But they won't get punished, because the Oil Companies basically own Washington.

Remember kids! If you have enough money, you can buy your way out of any sort of wrong doing. Whether it be murder, or destroying an entire industry plus an ecosystem because of your own incompetence

Spot on. I still find it unbelievable that BP still thinks they can dupe us into believing anything that they say...nothing they say means a thing. They really should change their company name to BS to reflect everything that they stand for.

But everything is looking up......last I heard 74% of the GoM was open.

Last I checked everything was looking down. Nothing positive has occurred in the last two weeks and there has been nothing but horrible news. I'm surprised not more were posting here after they announced "Top Kill" failed to contain the gusher on Saturday. Isn't that a devastating piece of news? That might just be the worst news of 2010. I can't say I was surprised though .