Operation Top Kill Fails

[dpearson]

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

I know. If anything, the prices have gone down. It's $2.59/gallon where I am.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

GG BP, this dolphin was asking for it.

 

[Mike Gayner]

Fuck BP, fuck Obama and his failing government, and fuck the previous US governments (GWB et al) for creating this toxic relationship with big oil that has resulted in this amazingly corrupt regulatory structure.

 

[0roo0roo]

I know. If anything, the prices have gone down. It's $2.59/gallon where I am.

why would it? the output of that rig is a tiny fraction of world output.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Fuck BP, fuck Obama and his failing government, and fuck the previous US governments (GWB et al) for creating this toxic relationship with big oil that has resulted in this amazingly corrupt regulatory structure.

Wut? You're an idiot.

 

[Mike Gayner]

Wut? You're an idiot.

Care to elaborate?

 

[Capt Caveman]

Care to elaborate?

Creating this into a P&N thread. Then blaming Obama. You should stick to current events in NZ b/c you know squat about the rest of the world.

 

[RedCOMET]

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.

And August is just the best guess. Deep water drilling is as much science as art. You can plan all you want, but once the well starts doing its own thing, you need to respond accordingly.

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?!

LOL. The BOP is the first and really only line of defense in well control. And just to clarifiy, you can have a blowout in a non-hydrocarbon bearing zone. I was on a job where we took a 0.30 ppg kick while drilling through Salt. Yes. we were drilling near the top of a 5k+ ft thick salt dome and took a kick. It was a gas kick, no oil was present. But regardless, a kick if uncontrolled will destabilize the well bore and can cause a blow out if not managed.

If i recall correctly... we circulated out the gas before raising the mud weight to get the gas bubble to the surface. Even though the gas went through po-boy degasser, we still had to shut down all hot work on the rig b/c we had over 4% gas in air coming out of the hole. The lower explosive limit (LEL) of methane is 4%.

 

[rockyct]

Wut? You're an idiot.

Don't feed the troll.

 

[Mike Gayner]

Creating this into a P&N thread. Then blaming Obama. You should stick to current events in NZ b/c you know squat about the rest of the world.

I'm not blaming Obama. I have absolutely no allegiance to any US political parties or persona, and as far as I'm concerned Obama is really only slightly better than the knuckle dragging idiot you stupid assholes elected before him.

 

[tcsenter]

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.

The fucking riser is blown to shit, has a bunch of cracks and holes in it from the blow-out. That's the major issue. The mud and concrete just squeezed out of the damaged areas of the riser.

 

[RedCOMET]

The fucking riser is blown to shit, has a bunch of cracks and holes in it from the blow-out. That's the major issue. The mud and concrete just squeezed out of the damaged areas of the riser.

I thought they just pumped drilling mud. I thought the riser was damaged when the rig sank, not from the actual blow out per se. also, for the cement do actually do its job in this scenario, the well needs to b static.

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.

I think the main issue with that plan is that they can't really secure a "large pipe" and have it create a water tight seal.

 

[ahenkel]

I demand Obama call upon the powers given to him by the spirit of Karl Marx and fix this. For he is the Marxist Messiah.

 

[tcsenter]

Care to elaborate?

He means that you should clarify your condemnation by adding that you don't play any role in the world demand for oil and thus your own hands are clean because you pedal around on your bike, use only solar energy, and don't use any product derived from petroleum like plastics and polymers. Go...

 

[Mike Gayner]

He means that you should clarify your condemnation by adding that you don't play any role in the world demand for oil and thus your own hands are clean because you pedal around on your bike, use only solar energy, and don't use any product derived from petroleum like plastics and polymers. Go...

You're an idiot.

 

[Dumac]

Yay! More oil!

I love oil on our coast, killing the wildlife!

 

[Wheezer]

I just filled my tank for under $30.00 thanks BP!

The only seafood I like is crab and well since most of that comes from Alaska...boo fucking whoo.

 

[Tangerines]

I just filled my tank for under $30.00 thanks BP!

The only seafood I like is crab and well since most of that comes from Alaska...boo fucking woo.

Um, remember the Prudhoe Bay Oil Spill?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prudhoe_Bay_oil_spill

BP is a shit company with a terrible safety record. I hope they get crushed by damages and fines after this.

 

[Locut0s]

Some not so small part of me wishes that this will completely destroy the entire gulf region and beyond. Perhaps then governments will wake up to the fact that we need to SERIOUSLY look at starting to wean ourselves off oil. I mean seriously start doing it not the pussy 1/2 assed photo op measures we have taken so far. They need to immediately start factoring in the real cost of using oil, gas and other carbon rich sources. Once the real costs are properly accounted for renewables like wind and solar are actually close to being on par kilowatt hour with oil and coal!

I don't really wish innocent people to be harmed but it might make people stand up and take notice for once.

 

[boomerang]

I thought they just pumped drilling mud. I thought the riser was damaged when the rig sank, not from the actual blow out per se. also, for the cement do actually do its job in this scenario, the well needs to b static.

This is my understanding also. What has gotten lost in the shuffle is that very early on, it was surmised that what brought the rig down was flooding it with millions of gallons of water in the failed attempt to put the fire out.

Some said if it had been left to burn, we wouldn't find ourselves in this situation. I put partial blame on the government early on because of this and was rode out of town on a rail by the usual suspects.

I'm not one to dwell on the past and won't do so in this case either. The point is will we learn something from this?

As a side note, I'm amazed at how many folks appear to have not even seen any video footage from the sea floor. It appears many think there is a pristine vertical pipe sticking up out of the ocean floor. Some seem to have no clue the difficulty of working a mile under the surface either.

 

[sdifox]

In my completely non expert opinion, best option looks like thermal blanketed dome with syphon to reduce contamination and wait for relief well. No equalization of pressure = no capping/cementing. I didn't understand the mud and cement manouver at all.

 

[Azraele]

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?

This thought had crossed my mind too, and the consequences would be horrifying.

 

[Meghan54]

Well, I'm pretty sure once the relief well is drilled, they'll be able to lessen the leak. But that won't be completed until the end of June at best.

 

[sandorski]

Meh, they should just start drilling holes and let all the Oil flow freely. Have Refineries stick a pipe into the Gulf and refine the "water". Imagine the money saved on Transport, rigs, and other such nonsense.

 

[3chordcharlie]

Meh, they should just start drilling holes and let all the Oil flow freely. Have Refineries stick a pipe into the Gulf and refine the "water". Imagine the money saved on Transport, rigs, and other such nonsense.

No way man, too many free-loading dolphins eating their oil.

(see disgusting pic in post #27).