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bmacd
climber
Relic Hominid
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Jun 18, 2010 - 12:04am PT
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A BOP collapse doesn't preclude a successful relief well as I read it. What would cause a casing to rupture ? I have seen video of stuff beltching out of the ground in the vicinity if the well.
Is this a hole into a superfield that may have blown out on anyone who drilled it ?
I read that The TransOcean rig was 40 days overdue for it's next contract so BP and TransOcean were in a hurry to complete.
Other commentary I have read does indicate there were extraordinary well head pressures being delivered possibly up to 50,000 psi during the blow out. An entire drill rig burned up pretty quick ...
TheOilDrum.com is the source for level headed info on this disaster for sure.
The spill rate will get worse as time goes on due to casing erosion is the worst bit of news
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tolman_paul
Trad climber
Anchorage, AK
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Jun 18, 2010 - 12:11am PT
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Overpressure would blow out the casing, i.e. the well was higher pressure than expected, and the casing wall too thin.
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tuolumne_tradster
Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
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Jun 18, 2010 - 12:56am PT
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See emails below where BP engineers are discussing the well design including the final 9 7/8" x 7" string of casing and concerns about annular pressure buildup (APB). If the reservoir pressure > pressure inside the casing, pressure will build up in the annulus and collapse the casing. This could have happened because methane gas entered the annulus during the cementing of the final casing string resulting in a compromised cement job. The cement job was further complicated by the fact that BP decided to install only 6 rather than the recommended 21 casing centralizers. Additionally, BP decided not to run a cement bond log that would have evaluated the cement job. When the decision was made to replace drilling fluid with seaH20 prematurely after the cement job, the casing probably collapsed and the well blew out. If this is true, then the chance that the relief well will be successful is slim.
Confidential
From: Hafle, Mark E
Sent: Wed Apr 14 23:09:46 2010
To: Miller, Richard A
Subject: RE: Macondo APB
Importance: Normal
Thanks Rich. This has been a crazy well for sure.
Mark
From: Miller, Richard A
Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 6:03 PM
To: Morel, Brian P
Cc: Hafle, Mark E
Subject: RE: Macondo APB
We have flipped design parameters around to the point that I got nervous. I did a rough update of both my disk calculations and my WellCat model. All looks fine. If we run the 9-7/8" x 7" as a long string, then the design resembles the original configuration, at least from an APB standpoint. The outward-acting 16" rupture disks mitigate 9-7/8" collapse loads due to B annulus APB. I do not have the final disk depth, so I guessed it is around 9,500'.If the 9-7/8" x 7" is run as a liner (per your schematic), then there is a risk that a trapped annulus forms between the 7" and 9-7/8" liners. The WellCat model predicts an incremental 2,350 psi APB in that annulus. To keep the 7" from collapsing, the pressure inside the 7" at 17,157' TVD needs to be 4,800 psi or greater. Assuming that the production packer is set above this depth, then the 4,800 psi could dictate
a reservoir abandonment pressure limit. We can hash this out in the completion phase, but you may want to alert completions of that possible issue. Let me know if you have questions. I'll be in Westlake Thursday morning and have an early afternoon
flight to catch.
Rich
From: Morel, Brian P
Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 1:31 PM
To: Miller, Richard A
Cc: Hafle, Mark E
Subject: Macondo APB
Rich,
There is a chance we could run a production liner on Macondo instead of the planned long string. As this does not change much for APB based on the original design assumptions of a trapped annular, I don't
see any major effects, but wanted to confirm I am not missing something. Attached is the proposed schematic, please let me know if you have any questions. We could be running it in 2-3 days, so need a
relative quick response. Sorry for the late notice, this has been nightmare well which has everyone all over the place.
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High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
Full Silos of Iowa
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Jun 20, 2010 - 10:50pm PT
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Anybody catch 60 Minutes tonight regarding Pelindaba, a nuclear plant in South Africa housing highly enriched uranium (HEU) that suffered an unsuccessful but SCARY terrorist attack last year. I want to be pro-nuclear really I do but I worry about humans being all too human. At least this disaster was an oil spill mishap and not a nuclear mishap if anyone's looking for a silver lining.
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HighDesertDJ
Trad climber
Arid-zona
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Jun 24, 2010 - 07:28pm PT
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http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-june-21-2010/day-62---the-strife-aquatic
Jon reveals the reason why bluering and TGT are so eager to apologize to BP about the $20 billion escrow fund....it was a Republican talking point for the 2-3 days before Barton apologized directly to BP's CEO (and was disowned by the rest of the party in an amazing about face).
Watch for a fantastic performance by Michelle Bachman around minute 03.00.
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
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Jun 24, 2010 - 07:41pm PT
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Look up why Goldman Sachs sold off a bunch of BP stock before the rig disaster.
Goldman Sachs is troubling....
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Jun 24, 2010 - 09:09pm PT
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HDDJ
All the robber barons of this century are government officials.
BP agreed to the shakedown because it limits their liability to the 20B and gives the BHO Chicago bunch a slush fund of equal size to administer.
If it had stayed private an aggrieved party could hire a lawyer and sue BP. (or more likely a zillion would have jumped on the case on contingency).
Now that the govt is running it if a bureaucrat decides you are for capricious reasons unworthy of compensation you are truly and forever screwed with no further opportunity for redress of grievances.
Meanwhile, those in political favor but uninjured will feed at the trough.
"It's the Chicago way!"
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rlf
Trad climber
Josh, CA
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Jun 24, 2010 - 10:52pm PT
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Has anyone heard about the new revelation that the BP $20B fund can be used by them for what ever they wish, not just compensation for claims?
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kunlun_shan
Mountain climber
SF, CA
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Jun 29, 2010 - 10:32pm PT
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Interesting story on the blowout preventers and the accident:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/sc-dc-oil-spill-pipes-20100626,0,3996660.story
Second pipe may have crippled BP well's defense mechanism
Jim Tankersley, Tribune Washington Bureau
June 29, 2010 | 4:17 p.m.
Reporting from Washington —
The gushing BP oil well is a mystery still unfolding, and late last month, a team of scientists from the Energy Department discovered a new twist: Their sophisticated imaging equipment detected not one but two drill pipes, side by side, inside the wreckage of the well's blowout preventer on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.
BP officials said it was impossible. The Deepwater Horizon rig, which drilled the well, used a single pipe, connected in segments, to bore 13,000 feet below the ocean floor. But when workers cut into the wreckage to install a containment cap this month, sure enough, they found two pipes.
The discovery suggested that the force of the erupting petroleum from BP's well on April 20 was so violent that it sent pipe segments hurtling into the blowout preventer, like derailing freight cars.
It also offered a tantalizing theory for the failure of the well's last line of defense, the powerful pinchers called shear rams inside the blowout preventer that should have cut the pipe and stopped the rising oil and gas from reaching the Deepwater Horizon 5,000 feet above. Drilling experts say those rams, believed to be partially deployed, could have been thwarted by the presence of a second pipe.
The doubled-up drill pipe joins a list of clues that is helping scientists understand the complexities of the Deepwater Horizon accident, and from that, craft changes in how deep-water drilling is conducted.
"We still don't really know what's in" the well wreckage, said Energy Secretary Steven Chu, whose team discovered the second pipe using gamma-ray imaging. He added: "If there were two drill pipes down there when the shear rams closed, or two drill pipes below, is it possible that in the initial accident … there was an explosive release of force?…Did it buckle and snap?…The more we know about this, the better we can know what to do next."
The challenge will be making enough changes to soothe policymakers' and the public's fears of a repeat accident, while keeping deep-water drilling economically feasible in an area that provides a third of the nation's domestic oil..... see link for the rest of the story
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Jeremy Handren
climber
NV
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Jun 29, 2010 - 10:59pm PT
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"If it had stayed private an aggrieved party could hire a lawyer and sue BP. (or more likely a zillion would have jumped on the case on contingency)."
Yup that worked out great in the Exxon Valdez spill didn't it, care to tell us what the final settlement looked like in that case TGT....
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Jun 29, 2010 - 11:09pm PT
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Some random thoughts about this.
Has anyone compared the various safety measures taken with Deepwater Horizon and in the Gulf of Mexico generally with those used in other countries and oceans? Is there an 'industry standard' for such things, or do some or all other countries insist on a higher standard? (Captive regulator...) I guess we'll hear a lot more about this, and regulatory reform, in the near future.
Might it have been possible to limit or stop the gusher simply by lowering a big rock into place on it? That is, assuming the ocean floor is relatively smooth there, clear away the wreckage, then literally plug it, using a large rock lowered from above. Several hundred tons perhaps, so the engineering could get interesting, but it could be an artifical or sculpted rock, and if it was planted squarely on the hole, it might work. Positioning might be the biggest challenge. At worst, you lift it up and move it somewhere else, where it provides an artificial reef for the bottom dwelling animals. They need all the help they can get.
Simply piling up large, small, and smaller boulders, rocks and gravel might also do it.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Jun 29, 2010 - 11:20pm PT
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From what I've read the pressures involved exceed the burst pressure of the well casing. Somewhere around 15,000 psi. Just dropping a big rock on it will compound the problem, not solve it. If it blows out say 1,000 ft below the sea bed then you have an unstoppable petroleum volcano, like some of the natural ones that existed off Santa Barbara and only stopped when the well field was put into production lowering the pressure.
That's why the relief wells are probably the only solution.
For the Exxon Valdez $287 million for actual damages was paid and never disputed. Exxon also directly spent 2 billion on the cleanup. The major legal battles were over the punitive damages only and ended up at half a billion.
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Klimmer
Mountain climber
San Diego
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Jun 30, 2010 - 12:08am PT
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If you do not look at the other side of the coin you will never know. Keep an open mind.
I think it is worth a good listen, all 8 parts . . .
(from another thread)
WB,
You are right.
Let's just say, we now have a much better way of looking at things and asking the right questions. A better, a more balanced approach.
One of them will always be, "Is this a false-flag, an inside job, MIHOP?"
We will now always be able to ask that question and seriously speculate, and immediatley look into the facts. We won't be blind to this speculation or to this possibility. Where, as someone else who has not come to this truth, can not even begin to speculate this way.
I'll be honest. With the Gulf spill I thought this shortly after the seroiusness of the spill was known. I do not think it is. It is truly an accident based on greed and not ever having drilled this deep before in the ocean. Russia has only gone this deep on the Continental plates, not Oceanic plates. Way too much can go wrong with a moveable platform at sea etc. It dramatically increases the risks.
Here is a really good discussion on that from Pastor Lindsey Williams, and talking to his Oil Elite contact that is very much a part of the NWO. Here is what he has to say about all of this. I recommend a listen. Very eye-opening as to what this all means. But it truly was an accident that came about by greed, lack of experience, rushing things and not taking precautions etc. But the seriousness of this dissaster is Orwellianly dark . . . I hope we can stop it. I don't know. I can't imagine what will happen if we can't. I do not think a Nuclear blast to seal it is an option. It might make it even worse. They need to start sucking all of it up and let tankers just come and fill up. Capture all leaks at the actual leaks.
I do not agree with the use of fossil fuels, but now we have a massive outflow of oil going into the eco-system of the World's oceans and gasing into the atmosphere with no way of stopping the flow. Capture it and use it.
There is no Peak Oil at this time. They have discovered vast oil reserves very deep now. This is beyond biotic fossil fuels. Yes, fossil fuels develop biotically, that is proven and true. But there is now new discoveries so deep that biotic origin just doesn't explain it. The geochemistry and developement of oil this deep, they are speculating is abiotic in formation. This is changing everything we know about oil, especially deep oil.
I highly recommend a listen to all 8 parts:
Lindsey Williams Returns to Update Us About Toxic Gases Spreading into Florida on Alex Jones Tv 1/8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAPSOeBdSDA&feature=related
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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I'm cryin' ...
John Lennon, I Am The Walrus
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Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
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" When ya gonna plug the hole, Daddy?"
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