That answer would be the folks that drill in the North Sea.....The same folks that offered their assistance day 3 of this disaster and was turned down by BO BO.. Do you homework Andy!

 

There was suppose to be some sarcasm carried over with that from the Bush referance. Like Iran (one of the countries offering expertise) could do ANYTHING better than what this country is capable of, beside of course being speed bumps for sand storms.

 

Don't you think BP drills in the North Sea? Again where did those experts come from? Oh yea that would be the US and England.

 

Fair enough, sarcasm is tough to get across onthe net sometimes.

 

They could end this whole thing just by putting a wedding ring on the pipe.

 

Hahahaha ... won't be putting out ANYTHING after that .


All I have heard about this stuff from one of the guys at my company who is an integral part of working on it now ...(think ROV's) ... is that the reason that the conventional ideas people have been bringing up will not work is because they don't address the fact that the casing is not rated for the pressure that will occur if you completely pinch off or plug this line (one of the BP issues).

The concern is that if they fully cap the top, stuff it, pinch it shut or whatever... there will be subsequent ruptures in the casing that will leak into the cracks and crevices in the rock hundreds of feet below the ocean floor which would send oil in many different areas miles apart from each other ... and become impossible to fix.

At least now the leaks are localized. They figure the weight of the drill mud to be pumped "up" the line will keep the oil below the questionable areas in the rock and solve the problem. Looked feasible when it was scribbled on a napkin to explain it to me .... but then again, I'm just a facilities manager, not an oil well guy.

Cheers,
PISTOL

 

That was my point!

 

There already are natural leaks occuring and large natural methane gas releases that happen. They say the gas releases in the burmuda triangle is what caused planes back in the day to crash so often; I guess they fly high enough now that it doesn't matter.

 

I guess I still don't see the comical side of that comment. Pushing a smaller pipe inside and letting the extreme pressure of the well push the oil to the surface........ They pumped mud down it somehow with another pipe, why not let it come up? Fill me in here?

 

was kidding.

this will be the event to define man made disasters, and our ineptness do to fix ourselves.

how can Al Gore think we can "fix" global warming, if we can't stop an oil leak.


I go to theoildrum.com and read alot of that.

i want to go on there and recommend they put down a much larger pipe (maybe 40 inches or whatever, to clear that flange), and just run it down OVER it, about 100 feet,

and let the oil just come UP that pipe,
and at least have it all spew in one central spot to control 90% of the oil

 

1) 27# 6 5/8" FH (full hole) drill pipe ID = 5.901". 34# 6 5/8" FH drill pipe ID = 5.58". Smaller pipe can not be inserted because there is none available with the tensile strength to not pull itself apart at that depth. 2) Casing has two mechanical properties that come in to particular view here. They are burst and collapse pressure. As in any type of tubular, collapse is less than burst. 3) As far as killing the well goes hydrostatic pressure is the problem. You can not contain pressure from the top. The wellbore will be intercepted at the top of the production zone and then heavy mud will be pumped. This will kill the well and the final cementing operations will start. 4) Insert a large diameter pipe around the wellhead? No, the seabed will not support the weight. Depending on where a well is drilled the formation does not firm up until you have drilled thousands of feet BML (below mudline). And Mississippi Canyon is notorious for this particular drilling problem.

 

Here is BP's new idea to cap the well.

 

Sung to the tune of the Sponge Bob theme song; "Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? No one anymore, thanks to BP"!

 

I agree, lose the engineers, lets get some redneck engineering on this project. How many rolls of duct tape does it take to stop an oil leak?

 

GREAT POST!!!! Absolutely nailed it. Not many people know about the surface problems, mostly because the idiots reporting do not do their homework.

Had a long conversation with a bunch of GOM drillers and CM's on my last hitch. The relief well is well under way and last I checked within 30 feet. The company that is performing the kill has a 100% success rate. I'll see if I can get the video that I watched up in ND. They drill down, wireline down to get accurate survey on bottom, adjust inclination and direction as neccessary, drill some more... When they get close enough they send a signal through the existing casing which they follow with the drill string. When they get to the casing of the existing well they will cut a window, and then go through a tried and true kill procedure which involves absolutely enormous amounts of very heavy kill mud and cement. Just takes time.

Oh and for the record, the relief well WILL be used as a production well. The reservoir that BP tapped with this will is on the order of 2 billion barrels.

Oh ya and as far as nukes, the russians were working in geological formations which turned to glass when the nuke went off. This 'sealed' the formation. The GOM is sedimentary will destabilize and fracture, not turn to glass. The effect or destabilization and fracture is to open up the formation further, not restrict it.