Deepwater Horizon

Andy Hunt · Post by **Andy Hunt** » 04 May 2010, 21:31

Thanks for the insights Ziggy - much appreciated.

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 04 May 2010, 21:54

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/04/deepwat ... _memo.html

A confidential government report on the unfolding spill disaster in the Gulf makes clear the Coast Guard now fears the well could become an unchecked gusher shooting millions of gallons of oil per day into the Gulf.

"The following is not public," reads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Emergency Response document dated April 28. "Two additional release points were found today in the tangled riser. If the riser pipe deteriorates further, the flow could become unchecked resulting in a release volume an order of magnitude higher than previously thought."

There seems to be growing unease that this problem may be bigger than is being admitted. This is apparently an ultra-high pressure well because it is sitting under so much water and rock.

Andy Hunt · Post by **Andy Hunt** » 04 May 2010, 22:12

April 28th - that's a bit old now, isn't it?

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 04 May 2010, 22:19

http://pesn.com/2010/05/02/9501643_Moth ... hs_oceans/

Mother of all gushers could kill Earth's oceans

Imagine a pipe 5 feet wide spewing crude oil like a fire hose from what could be the planets' largest, high-pressure oil and gas reserve. With the best technology available to man, the Deepwater Horizon rig popped a hole into that reserve and was overwhelmed. If this isn't contained, it could poison all the oceans of the world.

(May 2nd)

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 04 May 2010, 22:25

http://pesn.com/2010/05/02/9501643_Moth ... hs_oceans/

Oil Deposit Capacity

The BP people are not talking, but this well is into a deposit that easily could top 500,000 barrels production per day for 10 or 15 years. Letting that all go in one blast seems more than foolish.

The deposit is one I have known about since 1988. The deposit is very big. The central pressure in the deposit is 165 to 170 thousand PSI. It contains so much hydrocarbon that you simply cannot imagine it. In published reports, BP estimated a blow out could reach near 200,000 Barrels per day (165,000) They may have estimated a flow rate on a 5 foot pipe. The deposit is well able to surpass this.

The oil industry has knowledge of the deposit more than they admit. The deposit is 100 miles off shore. They are drilling into the edge of the deposit to leak it down gently to be able to produce from the deposit. The deposit is so large that while I have never heard exact numbers it was described to me to be either the largest or the second largest oil deposit ever found. It is mostly a natural gas deposit. That is another reason not to blast too willy nilly there. The natural gas that could be released is really way beyond the oil in quantity. It is like 10,000 times the oil in the deposit.

It is this deposit that has me reminding people of what the Shell geologist told me about the deposit. This was the quote, "Energy shortage..., Hell! We are afraid of running out of air to burn." The deposit is very large. It covers an area off shore something like 25,000 square miles. Natural Gas and Oil is leaking out of the deposit as far inland as Central Alabama and way over into Florida and even over to Louisiana almost as far as Texas. This is a really massive deposit. Punching holes in the deposit is a really scary event as we are now seeing.

Eh? So there's an oil field the size of the Ghawar that nobody has told us about?

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 04 May 2010, 22:28

There are too many errors in that article to take it very seriously.

ziggy12345 · Post by **ziggy12345** » 04 May 2010, 22:38

UndercoverElephant wrote:http://pesn.com/2010/05/02/9501643_Moth ... hs_oceans/

Mother of all gushers could kill Earth's oceans

Imagine a pipe 5 feet wide spewing crude oil like a fire hose from what could be the planets' largest, high-pressure oil and gas reserve. With the best technology available to man, the Deepwater Horizon rig popped a hole into that reserve and was overwhelmed. If this isn't contained, it could poison all the oceans of the world.
(May 2nd)

Utter bollocks

Aurora · Post by **Aurora** » 05 May 2010, 06:59

Don't hang back Ziggy.

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 05 May 2010, 08:33

We are afraid of running out of air to burn

Heck, PeakAir is upon us.

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 05 May 2010, 09:47

UndercoverElephant wrote:http://pesn.com/2010/05/02/9501643_Moth ... hs_oceans/

Mother of all gushers could kill Earth's oceans

Imagine a pipe 5 feet wide spewing crude oil like a fire hose from what could be the planets' largest, high-pressure oil and gas reserve. With the best technology available to man, the Deepwater Horizon rig popped a hole into that reserve and was overwhelmed. If this isn't contained, it could poison all the oceans of the world.

Some deep throat doomerism. That's more like it. I'll have it, wrap it for me please.

ziggy12345 · Post by **ziggy12345** » 05 May 2010, 16:59

I have a long email explaining what happened. Its all in drillers talk so I'll outline what happened in laymen’s terms

After the well is drilled the hole is cased with a steel liner. In this case it was 7" diameter. In reality the casing gets bigger the nearer the surface you get but there is still a 7" hole from the surface to the reservoir.

The casing is held in place by pumping cement around it and this locks it in place and also seals around it so pressure doesn’t find its way around the outside. In this case the cement had to be lightened by including nitrogen as the hydrostatic of the cement would push it into the reservoir.

The casing is sealed at surface with a seal assembly onto a sub sea wellhead. Gas leaked around the cement that was not very good and came up against the seal on the wellhead. There was a hydrostatic pressure of mud above this seal from the rig to the sea bed of 5000ft. A plug was set inside the 7" liner and it was tested OK so the mud was replaced in the riser (bit from the rig to the wellhead) with water lowering the pressure on the back of the 7" seal. The seal parted allowing gas to escape around the back of the liner and pushed all the water out of the riser onto the rig floor followed by the gas.

The gas fed into the engine intakes and they exploded out of the side of the rig. The mud pumps also exploded out of the other side of the rig.

The incident had multiple failures.

The cement job was not good and the integrity was not properly checked
The BOP did not work or was not operated
The gas detectors on the engine intakes and air intakes did not operate and close off the vents and shut down the engines

It was a miracle only 11 people died

Blue Peter · Post by **Blue Peter** » 05 May 2010, 17:21

ziggy12345 wrote:The casing is sealed at surface with a seal assembly onto a sub sea wellhead. Gas leaked around the cement that was not very good and came up against the seal on the wellhead. There was a hydrostatic pressure of mud above this seal from the rig to the sea bed of 5000ft. A plug was set inside the 7" liner and it was tested OK so the mud was replaced in the riser (bit from the rig to the wellhead) with water lowering the pressure on the back of the 7" seal. The seal parted allowing gas to escape around the back of the liner and pushed all the water out of the riser onto the rig floor followed by the gas.

The BOP did not work or was not operated

Thanks, I understand more now, though I'm afraid that I can't really picture the above paragraph (don't worry, I'm not very good at things like that).

And, what's a BOP?

Peter.

ziggy12345 · Post by **ziggy12345** » 05 May 2010, 17:26

Blow Out Preventer. It has a series of rams that close around pipe then actually cuts the pipe and seals the well.

Cheers

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 05 May 2010, 20:18

There's been some talk about the rams may not have been strong enough to cut through the pipe, especially if they happened to hit the stronger section where two pieces connect. Dunno if this is relevant here.

There's also a lot of talk about the US (blame Cheney) not insisting on the remote acoustic valves that Norway and Brazil require. What do know about that, Ziggy?

ziggy12345 · Post by **ziggy12345** » 05 May 2010, 23:41

The rams will cut through the pipe and also at the connection. The accoustic switch was not installed.