Operation Top Kill Fails

[Mike Gayner]

BP have ceased their Top Kill operation after it failed to stop the leak

Next comes their utterly implausable solution of putting a dome over it.

BP has said the complex "top kill" manoeuvre to plug its Gulf of Mexico oil well has failed, crushing hopes for a quick end to the largest oil spill in US history already in its 40th day.

"We have not been able to stop the flow," said Doug Suttles, the London-based oil giant's chief operating officer.

"We have made the decision to move on to the next option," he added.

That next option is called the lower marine riser package cap, one that captures oil from the well rather than plug it. Suttles said it could take four days or longer to show results.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/3754927/BP-stops-top-kill-plan-to-plug-leak

BP better get seriously financially butt fucked for this screw up, and some management had better see the inside of a jail cell. Even though I know they wont.

Punted to P&N

-ViRGE

-And locked because there's already a P&N thread. Now, OT doesn't have to suffer from this thread though. -DrPizza

 

[Crono]

They need to start using some unreal tournament achievement names.

 

[TehMac]

Wasn't there an earlier thread posted for you to whine in with your childish attitude and effectively demonstrate your ignorance?

 

[0roo0roo]

why did it fail, did they miss the drill target?

 

[Mike Gayner]

Wasn't there an earlier thread posted for you to whine in with your childish attitude and effectively demonstrate your ignorance?

Fuck off and derail a thread somewhere else, like P&N where you belong with the other crackpot loonies plx.

 

[Pheran]

Hmm, maybe it's time to start thinking seriously about the Russian strategy of nuking it.

 

[Rubycon]

They need to start using some unreal tournament achievement names.

I think it just went from Ludicrous Kill to Holy Shit!

 

[slayer202]

pathetic :/

 

[mjrpes3]

Hmm, maybe it's time to start thinking seriously about the Russian strategy of nuking it.

All options are pretty much open now, right?

 

[iGas]

I think it just went from Ludicrous Kill to Holy Shit!

Have they tried make shift Victaulic (superior Canadian piping fittings design) clamp & gate valve ++ roding?


Saw off broken pipe, and slip a larger pipe over top of the existing pipe with a pre installed gate valve. The other end of the large pipe is fitted with a Victaulic like coupling combine with rodding would surely cap the spill.

 

[theflyingpig]

Hmm, maybe it's time to start thinking seriously about the Russian strategy of nuking it.

The US leadership is far to weak to even consider that an option. They are too weak to do anything besides talk. Everyone knows this.

 

[Rubycon]

Have they tried make shift Victaulic (superior Canadian piping fittings design) clamp & gate valve ++ roding?


Saw off broken pipe, and slip a larger pipe over top of the existing pipe with a pre installed gate valve. The other end of the large pipe is fitted with a Victaulic like coupling combine with rodding would surely cap the spill.

Sounds like what they are trying to do next...

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Is it a possibility that we simply do not have the technology to fix this? What would happen if this continued to "leak" for the next 6 months? A year? 10 years?

 

[Mike Gayner]

Is it a possibility that we simply do not have the technology to fix this? What would happen if this continued to "leak" for the next 6 months? A year? 10 years?

Good question - I guess we really don't know, because we've never tried. The more salient question is, should oil companies be allowed to prospect for oil without plausible, testable, demonstrated techniques for worst-case-scenario situations like this?

 

[LTC8K6]

BP knows how to fix this, and they will. Being a mile underwater, it's always a difficult task.

 

[Mike Gayner]

BP knows how to fix this, and they will. Being a mile underwater, it's always a difficult task.

They've already failed twice, so what gives you so much confidence?

 

[TridenT]

Fuck off and derail a thread somewhere else, like P&N where you belong with the other crackpot loonies plx.

:awe: that

 

[LTC8K6]

They've already failed twice, so what gives you so much confidence?

Obama?

 

[Mike Gayner]

Obama?

Huh?

 

[Crono]

Huh?

He must be mixed up with the p&n thread.

 

[LTC8K6]

Obama doesn't give you confidence?

He was just down there holding a tar ball.

Seriously though, I believe it was only ice formation that stopped the cap from working. They can probably overcome that. Some method of warming the outlet area of the cap?

 

[duragezic]

Is it a possibility that we simply do not have the technology to fix this? What would happen if this continued to "leak" for the next 6 months? A year? 10 years?

It could be. It hurts BP in so many ways every day it leaks, so they have to be doing everything they can. Supposedly they have this big group of scientists, engineers, and other experts brainstorming solutions, but it just hasn't worked.

Some of the things they have tried are proven, working technology. Like the dome has worked before in shallow waters, the junk shot has worked on ground wells, etc. But the depth of this leak, and possibly just the huge flow rate, has prevented them from working in this case.

The permanent fix is the relief wells. They were started a week or so after the leak, but it takes months for them to reach the depth of the oil field. So worst case is the thing leaks all this time until August.

The only thing that has really worked is the pipe inserted. Why isn't that there still? Sure it wasn't doing everything but it was supposedly pumping up to 5,000 gallons per day which could be 25% of the leak going into a tanker instead of ocean. Why not insert a bigger pipe, or a couple of these?

 

[amdhunter]

I'm surprised gas prices haven't jumped to $5 a gallon over this.

 

[Mike Gayner]

I'm surprised gas prices haven't jumped to $5 a gallon over this.

Pump prices are governed primarily by the forces of supply and demand. This catastrophe hasn't affected the quantity demanded, and the truth is this amount of oil is a drop in the bucket of daily oil supply.

 

[duragezic]

What gets me still is how the blowout preventer has not worked. That is the key point. From the hole in the seabed up to the rig, there is all that pipe where oil could leak. But the base is where plugging it would fix everything upstream.

Somehow that thing, supposedly with all these redundancies, hasn't worked and won't work (seems like they gave up after a few days). Why can't that fucking thing work?!