Drill, baby, drill,,oops!

Has anyone noticed that just as the relief well gets into position, the well is being capped and checked for integrity. Which means that it can still be used as an active well if everything works out as planned. It rather clear that a lot of $$$ are at stake to get a working cap installed.

If the pressure test are successful, then sooner or later, BP will want to start extracting. I wonder how big a political storm would result if this actually happens.

 

I don't think they will have the option to use it as a well as they are planning to pump a bunch of concrete into it.
If the new 'cap' will allow them to cut the leak to almost nothing, I think that is a good thing.

 

My point is that once this attached and the well integrity is verified, there is no leak anymore. Why would you put concrete in a perfectly good well and risk the drilling of a brand new well? For better or worst, it's been proven to the world that there is a cash cow of first order at this location. No way that is going to be left untouched.

 

They may well drill another well or wells. However, they have said over and over that they will be pumping in the concrete.
There is a lot of speculation that the sea floor itself near the original well is fractured and that the pipe below the surface is damaged. They can't afford to take the risk, monetarily or PR-wise.

 

I have to admit I thought this is very interesting too. Early on I was wondering to what extent BP would try to salvage this well and how it might influence how they tried to "fix" things...

 

Obviously, the actions will become clear in a couple of days. Hopefully safe rather than sorry has been learned by BP.

 

Huh? Are you listening to some of the seriously mangled press reports again?

It isn't being truly capped, they are just putting on a higher capacity collection device with a better seal that should allow them to collect all the flow.

But this device cannot stop the flow. The pressure would blow it off or burst the well casing, which may already be ruptured. If hurricanes force all the collection ships to leave, the spill will continue at full rate. The relief wells are needed to stop the flow.

 

But with the cap that was on there, it could not be completely sealed because it didnt fit perfectly, correct? So with the old cap, and the relief wells, it would still spew. This new cap is a better seal, so once the relief wells are drilled, they can completely shut off this hole and route it fully through the reliefs, correct? This is what I gather from reading BBC...

 

Actually, as I understand it, the new cap is designed to do either.
So they will run tests to see if it can withstand the pressure. Failing that, the will have a tighter fitting cap so they can pump up the oil with little to no leakage.

 

Actually, I've been following it too closely. The plan is to run a 6 to 48 complete flow stoppage test. That requires a complete seal.

Watching the ROVs getting ready to operate the equipment had one very funny sequence.

Once the cap was on (but still open to allow leak flow), the local ROV was looking inside a valve stem for actuating the choke assembly. Inside this recess was a half moon shaped "insert" or something I could not figure out. So the ROV goes to a tool bin, pulls out a very expensive looking precision fitting with a very long end. (Must be a special insertion tool?) The ROV carefully positions itself in front of the recess, slowly aligns the expensive tool and then....

WHACK, WHACK, WHACK,

It uses it to hammer out the dirt in the recess. Sort of like using a pair of calipers for a lug wrench.

 

Since my earlier post, I have seen good reports describing how this new top might be able to stop the flow, pending testing to determine the condition of the well casing below.

I've been jaded by other 'news' outlets that seriously dumbed down their reports to the point of outright error. One last week relabeled this new cap as a 'plug', sounding certain that it would stop the leak. This same outlet earlier represented a potential 'worst case' flow rate, if several additional faults were to occur, as the actual current flow rate.

 

and they said it would take 3 months!! no where near that~!! beat the deadline by HOURS.

but do we accept this or is it filed next to "leak estimates at 5,000 barrels a day"

 

Some observations:
1) The rapid installation of the three ram assembly, the quick repairs of the choke assembly and many other ROV feats done over the last few months proves that the technology exists for building and properly maintaining BOPs. The failure that lead to the 11 deaths and loss of the Deepwater Horizon cannot be blamed on lack of oil industry engineering capabilities.

2) While the big leak captured all the attention, it was clear that unconstrained releasing of every lubricant, cleaning fluid, dispersal agent, and any other fluid to be discarded was dumped into the ocean as standard practice. I can see where that leads to an industry mindset of environmental disregard.

3) The media wants to be technically clueless. For the last four days, BP has made it clear that the pressure monitoring of the wells is not on video. Twice, every day someone in the media ask which ROV hydraulic accumulator gage shows the well pressure.

 

I've been away from the 'news' most of the day. So which clueless idiots are calling it 'fixed'?

Do we yet know that it will beat the August estimates? This is just a test, and I'd rather wait until the test analysis is in.

 

checked out the video, looks good. i guess it will be a few days before pressure readings will tell us whether we can keep the lid on until the alternate wells are completed

 

Unless the pressure drops ,in which case the test is over and all valves open.

 

Dave, next time try to remember the [SARCASM]... [/SARCASM] flags. Some of the other readers missed it.

Tom

 

Seems like an easy decision is being made hard. There certainly was no effort to do all this seismic, visual, and sonar monitoring as soon as the leak occurred and the ROVs were trying to get the blowout preventer to shut. However, I need to know more. Has there been a case where an underwater well that was closed needed to opened up to the ocean to solve a similar problem?

 

Excellent point. We have used the oceans as dumping grounds for far too long!