B.P.'s Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Thread (it's all here).....
- Thread starter Praxius
- Start date
Most definitely. And then there's the billions of creatures that are barely visible, like plankton.
Considering that I have spent a fair bit of time undertaking deepwater drilling operations in my past I thought I should pipe up about a few misconceptions that seem to happening on this forum.
There is a sub sea BOP (blow out preventer) stack on this drilling operation without question.
There is a BOP stack on virtually all offshore drilling drilling operations throughout the world.
A BOP stack usually includes:
Multiple stets of pipe or casing rams which will seal around any or multiple sets of pipe or casing.
Multiple remote HCR or surface controlled "choke" or "throttle" valve systems which allow controlled manipulation of gas or oil surges.
A "Bag" or "Hydril" or multiple "Bags" or" Hydril's" which will seal around just about anything as they are hydraulically inflatable systems designed to seal around just about anything.
On top of all that there are a multitude of remotely and pressure actuated safety valves and shut off valves scattered throughout the drilling package.
All this stuff is remotely or surface controlled.
All offshore semi sub rigs ( and this was one) have onboard a couple of sub sea engineers who have accepted engineering degrees and are responsible for constant and complete control of all remotely controlled well control systems.
On top of that all well control systems are tested, actuated , pressure tested and certified constantly (every 30 days for sure).
On top of all that there are whack of constant technical data outputs while drilling including LWD systems that output bottom hole ECD's, formation temperatures and real time reservoir analysis.
Surface systems analyze volume and pressure gains and losses to the fraction of a degree.
And of course in this case it all went to hell.
Deepwater drilling into high pressure/ high temp formations is a dangerous and tricky business.
If you play that game repeatedly once in a while you get bit in the ass.
To be truthful what the heck they were trying to do running (and cementing ) a liner while being under an apparent under-balanced situation baffles me but that is a technical question that at present remains unanswered.
Now a directional relief well could take months to drill.
Oil and gas drilling is a somewhat dangerous and highly technical game much like mining.
Once in a while it all goes wrong.
It is what it is.
Trex
There is a sub sea BOP (blow out preventer) stack on this drilling operation without question.
There is a BOP stack on virtually all offshore drilling drilling operations throughout the world.
A BOP stack usually includes:
Multiple stets of pipe or casing rams which will seal around any or multiple sets of pipe or casing.
Multiple remote HCR or surface controlled "choke" or "throttle" valve systems which allow controlled manipulation of gas or oil surges.
A "Bag" or "Hydril" or multiple "Bags" or" Hydril's" which will seal around just about anything as they are hydraulically inflatable systems designed to seal around just about anything.
On top of all that there are a multitude of remotely and pressure actuated safety valves and shut off valves scattered throughout the drilling package.
All this stuff is remotely or surface controlled.
All offshore semi sub rigs ( and this was one) have onboard a couple of sub sea engineers who have accepted engineering degrees and are responsible for constant and complete control of all remotely controlled well control systems.
On top of that all well control systems are tested, actuated , pressure tested and certified constantly (every 30 days for sure).
On top of all that there are whack of constant technical data outputs while drilling including LWD systems that output bottom hole ECD's, formation temperatures and real time reservoir analysis.
Surface systems analyze volume and pressure gains and losses to the fraction of a degree.
And of course in this case it all went to hell.
Deepwater drilling into high pressure/ high temp formations is a dangerous and tricky business.
If you play that game repeatedly once in a while you get bit in the ass.
To be truthful what the heck they were trying to do running (and cementing ) a liner while being under an apparent under-balanced situation baffles me but that is a technical question that at present remains unanswered.
Now a directional relief well could take months to drill.
Oil and gas drilling is a somewhat dangerous and highly technical game much like mining.
Once in a while it all goes wrong.
It is what it is.
Trex
A $500,000 acoustic trigger may have allowed workers escaping from the burning rig by boat to send a remote signal 5,000 feet below the water's surface to close the valve and stop the oil.
U.S. mulls requiring remote shutoffs for oil rigs | Reuters
U.S. mulls requiring remote shutoffs for oil rigs | Reuters
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http://pesn.com/2010/05/02/9501643_Mother_of_all_gushers_could_kill_Earths_oceans/
You are here: PureEnergySystems.com > News > May 2, 2010
Mother of all gushers could kill Earth's oceans
Imagine a pipe 5 feet wide spewing crude oil like a fire hose from what could be the planets' largest, high-pressure oil and gas reserve. With the best technology available to man, the Deepwater Horizon rig popped a hole into that reserve and was overwhelmed. If this isn't contained, it could poison all the oceans of the world.
"Well if you say the fire hose has a 70,000 psi pump on the other end yes! No comparison here. The volume out rises geometrically with pressure. Its a squares function. Two times the pressure is 4 times the push. The Alaska pipeline is 4 feet in diameter and pushes with a lot less pressure. This situation in the Gulf of Mexico is stunning dangerous." -- Paul Noel (May 2, 2010)
Last night we received the following text in an email, author not identified. I passed it by Paul Noel, who is an expert in the field. His response follows thereafter. In calculating the gallons required to kill the oceans, remember that oil goes to the surface, where life is concentrated.
The Oil Mess
The original estimate was about 5,000 gallons of oil a day spilling into the ocean. Now they're saying 200,000 gallons a day. That's over a million gallons of crude oil a week!
I'm engineer with 25 years of experience. I've worked on some big projects with big machines. Maybe that's why this mess is so clear to me.
First, the BP platform was drilling for what they call deep oil. They go out where the ocean is about 5,000 feet deep and drill another 30,000 feet into the crust of the earth. This it right on the edge of what human technology can do. Well, this time they hit a pocket of oil at such high pressure that it burst all of their safety valves all the way up to the drilling rig and then caused the rig to explode and sink. Take a moment to grasp the import of that. The pressure behind this oil is so high that it destroyed the maximum effort of human science to contain it.
When the rig sank it flipped over and landed on top of the drill hole some 5,000 feet under the ocean.
Now they've got a hole in the ocean floor, 5,000 feet down with a wrecked oil drilling rig sitting on top of it spewing 200,000 [gallons] of oil a day into the ocean. Take a moment and consider that, will you!
First they have to get the oil rig off the hole to get at it in order to try to cap it. Do you know the level of effort it will take to move that wrecked oil rig, sitting under 5,000 feet of water? That operation alone would take years and hundreds of millions to accomplish. Then, how do you cap that hole in the muddy ocean floor? There just is no way. No way.
The only piece of human technology that might address this is a nuclear bomb. I'm not kidding. If they put a nuke down there in the right spot it might seal up the hole. Nothing short of that will work. [See Paul Noel's ideas above.]
If we can't cap that hole that oil is going to destroy the oceans of the world. It only takes one quart of motor oil to make 250,000 gallons of ocean water toxic to wildlife. Are you starting to get the magnitude of this?
We're so used to our politicians creating false crises to forward their criminal agendas that we aren't recognizing that we're staring straight into possibly the greatest disaster mankind will ever see. Imagine what happens if that oil keeps flowing until it destroys all life in the oceans of this planet. Who knows how big of a reservoir of oil is down there.
Not to mention that the oceans are critical to maintaining the proper oxygen level in the atmosphere for human life.
We're humped. Unless God steps in and fixes this. No human can. You can be sure of that.
See also: Oil spill Much Much Worse than reported and Not Stopping Soon (Christian Science Monitor)
Response by Paul Noel
for Pure Energy Systems News
I really do think that the situation is getting further and further out of hand.
By yesterday morning, the nature of the crude had changed, indicating that the spill was collapsing the rock structures. How much I cannot say. If it is collapsing the rock structures, the least that can be said is that the rock is fragmenting and blowing up the tube with the oil. With that going on you have a high pressure abrasive sand blaster working on the kinks in the pipe eroding it causing the very real risk of increasing the leaks.
More than that is the very real risk of causing the casing to become unstable and literally blowing it up the well bringing the hole to totally open condition. Another risk arises because according to reports the crew was cementing the exterior of the casing when this happens. As a result, the well, if this was not properly completed, could begin to blow outside the casing. Another possible scenario is a sea floor collapse. If that happens Katie bar the door.
more..........................................
Mother of all gushers could kill Earth's oceans
http://pesn.com/2010/05/02/9501643_Mother_of_all_gushers_could_kill_Earths_oceans/
You are here: PureEnergySystems.com > News > May 2, 2010
Mother of all gushers could kill Earth's oceans
Imagine a pipe 5 feet wide spewing crude oil like a fire hose from what could be the planets' largest, high-pressure oil and gas reserve. With the best technology available to man, the Deepwater Horizon rig popped a hole into that reserve and was overwhelmed. If this isn't contained, it could poison all the oceans of the world.
"Well if you say the fire hose has a 70,000 psi pump on the other end yes! No comparison here. The volume out rises geometrically with pressure. Its a squares function. Two times the pressure is 4 times the push. The Alaska pipeline is 4 feet in diameter and pushes with a lot less pressure. This situation in the Gulf of Mexico is stunning dangerous." -- Paul Noel (May 2, 2010)
Last night we received the following text in an email, author not identified. I passed it by Paul Noel, who is an expert in the field. His response follows thereafter. In calculating the gallons required to kill the oceans, remember that oil goes to the surface, where life is concentrated.
The Oil Mess
The original estimate was about 5,000 gallons of oil a day spilling into the ocean. Now they're saying 200,000 gallons a day. That's over a million gallons of crude oil a week!
I'm engineer with 25 years of experience. I've worked on some big projects with big machines. Maybe that's why this mess is so clear to me.
First, the BP platform was drilling for what they call deep oil. They go out where the ocean is about 5,000 feet deep and drill another 30,000 feet into the crust of the earth. This it right on the edge of what human technology can do. Well, this time they hit a pocket of oil at such high pressure that it burst all of their safety valves all the way up to the drilling rig and then caused the rig to explode and sink. Take a moment to grasp the import of that. The pressure behind this oil is so high that it destroyed the maximum effort of human science to contain it.
When the rig sank it flipped over and landed on top of the drill hole some 5,000 feet under the ocean.
Now they've got a hole in the ocean floor, 5,000 feet down with a wrecked oil drilling rig sitting on top of it spewing 200,000 [gallons] of oil a day into the ocean. Take a moment and consider that, will you!
First they have to get the oil rig off the hole to get at it in order to try to cap it. Do you know the level of effort it will take to move that wrecked oil rig, sitting under 5,000 feet of water? That operation alone would take years and hundreds of millions to accomplish. Then, how do you cap that hole in the muddy ocean floor? There just is no way. No way.
The only piece of human technology that might address this is a nuclear bomb. I'm not kidding. If they put a nuke down there in the right spot it might seal up the hole. Nothing short of that will work. [See Paul Noel's ideas above.]
If we can't cap that hole that oil is going to destroy the oceans of the world. It only takes one quart of motor oil to make 250,000 gallons of ocean water toxic to wildlife. Are you starting to get the magnitude of this?
We're so used to our politicians creating false crises to forward their criminal agendas that we aren't recognizing that we're staring straight into possibly the greatest disaster mankind will ever see. Imagine what happens if that oil keeps flowing until it destroys all life in the oceans of this planet. Who knows how big of a reservoir of oil is down there.
Not to mention that the oceans are critical to maintaining the proper oxygen level in the atmosphere for human life.
We're humped. Unless God steps in and fixes this. No human can. You can be sure of that.
See also: Oil spill Much Much Worse than reported and Not Stopping Soon (Christian Science Monitor)
Response by Paul Noel
for Pure Energy Systems News
I really do think that the situation is getting further and further out of hand.
By yesterday morning, the nature of the crude had changed, indicating that the spill was collapsing the rock structures. How much I cannot say. If it is collapsing the rock structures, the least that can be said is that the rock is fragmenting and blowing up the tube with the oil. With that going on you have a high pressure abrasive sand blaster working on the kinks in the pipe eroding it causing the very real risk of increasing the leaks.
More than that is the very real risk of causing the casing to become unstable and literally blowing it up the well bringing the hole to totally open condition. Another risk arises because according to reports the crew was cementing the exterior of the casing when this happens. As a result, the well, if this was not properly completed, could begin to blow outside the casing. Another possible scenario is a sea floor collapse. If that happens Katie bar the door.
more..........................................
Mother of all gushers could kill Earth's oceans
Once again Stretch you have managed to cut and paste a quote from some idiot who has no clue what he is talking about.
An "engineer" who works with "big machines" and thus understands every technical detail of a sub sea blowout.
It's obvious the quoted guy has zero experience or education relating to the O&G industry.
Pretty much everything quoted is erroneous.
For who are interested in discussing the technical aspects of this blowout please go to this link:
- Transocean fire
The site is called the drillers club and the posts and opinions come from a variety of real experts in the field.
My sympathies go out to the families of the men who were lost in this disaster.
Trex
I echo your sentiment. Within the patch people have been very saddened by this incident. My friends who work off-shore were crushed by this incident. They almost all knew men who were on this rig in one capacity or another.
Imagine a pipe 5 feet wide spewing crude oil like a fire hose from what could be the planets' largest, high-pressure oil and gas reserve.
Why imagine a pipe 5 feet wide? The riser pipe on this well was 9.625 inches in diameter.
Yeah, but it's more dramatic and fun to make assumptions if you're never seen any work done in the industry.
Ah, so BP is just unluckier than most? Cute.
Perhaps they should have some way of containment just in case they are that unlucky so that unlucky circumstances like this are even less likely to affect a large chunk of the rest of the planet.
They probably will be now... sad to say, but, businesses are not unlike the people who run them, in not understanding the need for insurance until something bad happens. BP questioned the need for a remote activation of its BOP's... now they will have a huge clean up bill that will prove to them that the remote is cheaper.
Considering the severity of the negative consequences, I think best available technology should have been required for any impact assessment. They're playing with fire, and this is going to hurt more than just BP.
The worst case scenario has this pollution ending up on the Eastern Seaboard of the USA, costing 10's of Billions of dollars, and taking many decades before the damage is mitigated.
The Economist talks about the spill, and the hidden costs in the price of gasoline.
For the worst case scenario I mentioned earlier, the press release it came from is here:
Cumberland Advisors - Market Commentary
The worst case scenario has this pollution ending up on the Eastern Seaboard of the USA, costing 10's of Billions of dollars, and taking many decades before the damage is mitigated.
The Economist talks about the spill, and the hidden costs in the price of gasoline.
For the worst case scenario I mentioned earlier, the press release it came from is here:
Cumberland Advisors - Market Commentary
Yeah. Aren't we unlucky.
Hey! Just like BP and the critters in the gulf and elsewhere ..... unlucky.
Scroll down to about 2/5 of the page and start reading here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BP#Accidents
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From something I read BP's is only liable for 75 million in fines or clean-up costs. Part of the enviornmental 'deal' was the Federal Gov would have booms ready for deployment to protect the land. Since those were not in place it is the Federal Gov who foots the bill for contamination on land. So that means an overinflated contract where the actual work is not done as the specs called for even though the 'costs' are many times above the 'contract price'/
Out of all the litigation over the Exxon how much did both sides (Lawyers alone) take home just in legal fees? This should be many times that just due to location. lol They may want to save some of the sludge for the printing presses.
BTW we are just on the event horizon for the start of this recession.
Another recession? Come on, surely you are not condemning the oil industry's latest job creation program?