Drill, baby, drill!

[redeyed]

Hey Stumbler, could it be possible that their cement didn't take or couldn't hold the pressure of this "exploratory" well? I read the rig had just finished cementing. That's the larger or return casing? I'm not very well versed on your end of the industry, in my mind the 5000' of "riser pipe" falling to the floor could very well damage the casing. Possibly enough to render the well head useless?
If so we are looking at three or four months of this well flowing wide open?

[stumbler]

Originally Posted by redeyed

Hey Stumbler, could it be possible that their cement didn't take or couldn't hold the pressure of this "exploratory" well? I read the rig had just finished cementing. That's the larger or return casing? I'm not very well versed on your end of the industry, in my mind the 5000' of "riser pipe" falling to the floor could very well damage the casing. Possibly enough to render the well head useless?
If so we are looking at three or four months of this well flowing wide open?

Think of a well like this. First they drill a hole, let's say about 17 inches in diameter for a couple thousand feet of less. Then they run surface casing, cement it, and put their well head and blow out preventers on top of that casing. Then they reduce the hole size to about 12 inches and drill to maybe a thousand feet or so from their proposed total depth. Then they'll run and intermediate string of casing (metal pipe) and cement that. Then they reduce the hole size again, drill through their pay zones and run a production liner. All of those involve cementing the casing in and since they were 18,000 feet I bet they were cementing the production liner.

Lots of things could create sudden pressure while they are pumping the cement which could be anything from abnormal formation pressure coming at them, to some fool closing the wrong valve at the wrong time and blowing their iron up.

But you've hit a very important and interesting part here. The BOP's should have worked to stop anything coming up around the pipe or casing. Unless they didn't change their "rams" which are a pair of half circles made of rubber and metal that close around the pipe or casing. If they had pipe rams instead of casing rams they'd be too small go around the casing.

My guess is that the pressure actually made it to the rig floor and they blew their casing head up which let the pressure come right up the open casing like a gun barrel.

[redeyed]

Originally Posted by stumbler

All of those involve cementing the casing in and since they were 18,000 feet I bet they were cementing the production liner.

My guess is that the pressure actually made it to the rig floor and they blew their casing head up which let the pressure come right up the open casing like a gun barrel.

I am wondering how they cement the production liner? I understand that it is pumped around the casing under high pressure. Could they fractured the liner? And what keeps the gas or rather holds the pressure in the liner while they cement?

Oh yeah they are supposed to be drilling friday on the relief well...and that article said they are still trying to activate the BOP's...
Which to me means that BP's bullshit is just that bullshit, and they have a well blowing its ass off and can't cover it up...or rather can no longer hide it..

[Kimiko]

Originally Posted by redeyed

I am wondering how they cement the production liner? I understand that it is pumped around the casing under high pressure. Could they fractured the liner? And what keeps the gas or rather holds the pressure in the liner while they cement?

Oh yeah they are supposed to be drilling friday on the relief well...and that article said they are still trying to activate the BOP's...
Which to me means that BP's bullshit is just that bullshit, and they have a well blowing its ass off and can't cover it up...or rather can no longer hide it..

Leaking crude oil is one of those things that can be hard to conceal for long.

[redeyed]

It certianly is...
*let me edit that it is on this scale.

[Kimiko]

Originally Posted by redeyed

It certianly is...
*let me edit that it is on this scale.

Yes...and I agree with Stumbler that "leak" is a not-quite-adequate description of what we've got here. As Wilford Brimley once said: "A leak? You call what's going on here a LEAK? The last time there was a leak like this, Noah built himself a boat!"

[love_chocolate]

Hydrostatic pressure!

[love_chocolate]

Originally Posted by redeyed

I am wondering how they cement the production liner? I understand that it is pumped around the casing under high pressure. Could they fractured the liner? And what keeps the gas or rather holds the pressure in the liner while they cement?

Oh yeah they are supposed to be drilling friday on the relief well...and that article said they are still trying to activate the BOP's...
Which to me means that BP's bullshit is just that bullshit, and they have a well blowing its ass off and can't cover it up...or rather can no longer hide it..

Hydrostatic Pressure!

[love_chocolate]

Originally Posted by love_chocolate

Hydrostatic Pressure!

I used to be a cementer with B.J. Hughes, then later for Halliburton, before I moved to the Exxon Corp.

[stumbler]

Originally Posted by redeyed

I am wondering how they cement the production liner? I understand that it is pumped around the casing under high pressure. Could they fractured the liner? And what keeps the gas or rather holds the pressure in the liner while they cement?

Oh yeah they are supposed to be drilling friday on the relief well...and that article said they are still trying to activate the BOP's...
Which to me means that BP's bullshit is just that bullshit, and they have a well blowing its ass off and can't cover it up...or rather can no longer hide it..

As already mentioned what keeps the oil and gas from reaching the surface is the amount of hydrostatic pressure exerted on the bottom of the hole by the column of drilling mud sitting on top of it. To increase the amount of hydrostatic pressure they just increase the mud weight. Figure a gallon of water weighs a little more than 8.3 pounds. When they mix mud with weight material added they can increase the mud weight to about 18 pounds per gallon

To hang what they call a "production liner" they just run it in the hole, with the liner (small diameter casing) and they usually attach it to drill pipe, and run to where the liner is just off bottom. Then they pump cement down the drill pipe and inside the casing. They chase that with drilling mud to make sure the cement is forced out of the bottom of the production liner and up around the outside of the casing. Then they just have to wait for the cement to dry and harden.

Now what I'm wondering is where they were in that process. I'm having a hard time understanding why even if they blew something up on the floor it couldn't have killed everyone on the platform so they should have had enough manpower and time to get the well shut in long before the oil and gas actually got to the surface.

By the way I also wanted to say you made a very good point of the well maybe just blowing out in one place until the rig collapsed and since it fell 5,000 feet and ended up 1300 feet from the well head I bet it tore up their conductor pipe and also could have broken their wellhead off.

Once again we should all be screaming to see the video tapes British Petroleum has from their remote control submarines. I bet that would tell the whole story in a hurry.

Originally Posted by Kimiko

Yes...and I agree with Stumbler that "leak" is a not-quite-adequate description of what we've got here. As Wilford Brimley once said: "A leak? You call what's going on here a LEAK? The last time there was a leak like this, Noah built himself a boat!"

Was that Absence of Malice?

Originally Posted by love_chocolate

I used to be a cementer with B.J. Hughes, then later for Halliburton, before I moved to the Exxon Corp.

I'm out in the Rocky Mountains and we usually saw BJ Hughes after something really bad like a glory hole had occurred. Hallibutron used to be really good. They're terrible now. And Exxon and I never did get along.

Do you have any idea what they were doing when the well blew in?

[Rockprincess]

I just heard the oil spill is about three miles from shore...They think it will be there in a few hours, what a disaster... They are going to start drilling a new well to divert the oil, but that could take weeks or even months...

[redeyed]

I appreciate that Stumbler. I just can't see how the well head could withstand leverage applied from 5000ft of pipe "falling" against it. Maybe the conductor pipe is the weak link?
It said two of the "leaks" are from conductor. Both being close to the wellhead, which makes since that it would buckle at the bottom.
Now the conductor pipe is the 5000ft of temporary pipe that attches the rig to the wellhead. It would be removed from the wellhead after completion? Is it layered also?Maybe two incase one fails? It has to be different than onshore in that it is removed and onshore the rig is attached to the wellhead. Also, are there two sets of BOPs? One at the rig and one on the well head?
The different articles I've read have said they had hit their final depth and were cementing the casing. I'll do a little more looking on that as I'll be all night on a hydro test...

[redeyed]

Originally Posted by Rockprincess

I just heard the oil spill is about three miles from shore...They think it will be there in a few hours, what a disaster... They are going to start drilling a new well to divert the oil, but that could take weeks or even months...

And right now according to their estimates, the well is "leaking" 210,000 gallons of oil/saltwater a day...

[love_chocolate]

Originally Posted by stumbler

As already mentioned what keeps the oil and gas from reaching the surface is the amount of hydrostatic pressure exerted on the bottom of the hole by the column of drilling mud sitting on top of it. To increase the amount of hydrostatic pressure they just increase the mud weight. Figure a gallon of water weighs a little more than 8.3 pounds. When they mix mud with weight material added they can increase the mud weight to about 18 pounds per gallon

To hang what they call a "production liner" they just run it in the hole, with the liner (small diameter casing) and they usually attach it to drill pipe, and run to where the liner is just off bottom. Then they pump cement down the drill pipe and inside the casing. They chase that with drilling mud to make sure the cement is forced out of the bottom of the production liner and up around the outside of the casing. Then they just have to wait for the cement to dry and harden.

Now what I'm wondering is where they were in that process. I'm having a hard time understanding why even if they blew something up on the floor it couldn't have killed everyone on the platform so they should have had enough manpower and time to get the well shut in long before the oil and gas actually got to the surface.

By the way I also wanted to say you made a very good point of the well maybe just blowing out in one place until the rig collapsed and since it fell 5,000 feet and ended up 1300 feet from the well head I bet it tore up their conductor pipe and also could have broken their wellhead off.

Once again we should all be screaming to see the video tapes British Petroleum has from their remote control submarines. I bet that would tell the whole story in a hurry.




Was that Absence of Malice?



I'm out in the Rocky Mountains and we usually saw BJ Hughes after something really bad like a glory hole had occurred. Hallibutron used to be really good. They're terrible now. And Exxon and I never did get along.

Do you have any idea what they were doing when the well blew in?

Back then working with B.J. Hughes and at that time Haliburton, was nice and you were treated well and more than fair. I worked on plenty of blow-outs, especially around the coast of Africa!

[love_chocolate]

Originally Posted by love_chocolate

Back then working with B.J. Hughes and at that time Haliburton, was nice and you were treated well and more than fair. I worked on plenty of blow-outs, especially around the coast of Africa!

Probably at a card game, stacking up their profits!

[stumbler]

Originally Posted by redeyed

I appreciate that Stumbler. I just can't see how the well head could withstand leverage applied from 5000ft of pipe "falling" against it. Maybe the conductor pipe is the weak link?
It said two of the "leaks" are from conductor. Both being close to the wellhead, which makes since that it would buckle at the bottom.
Now the conductor pipe is the 5000ft of temporary pipe that attches the rig to the wellhead. It would be removed from the wellhead after completion? Is it layered also?Maybe two incase one fails? It has to be different than onshore in that it is removed and onshore the rig is attached to the wellhead. Also, are there two sets of BOPs? One at the rig and one on the well head?
The different articles I've read have said they had hit their final depth and were cementing the casing. I'll do a little more looking on that as I'll be all night on a hydro test...

I've been thinking they are blowing out both outside the casing which means its getting past the BOP's somehow, and inside the casing or drill pipe too which would be blowing out at the surface, or was until the rig collapsed and then the drill string went down with the rig and would still be blowing out, then coming up around the casing in the BOP's and probably breaking off the wellhead which would give them three different flows and no way to stop it once the wellhead is cracked or broken.

Originally Posted by love_chocolate

Back then working with B.J. Hughes and at that time Haliburton, was nice and you were treated well and more than fair. I worked on plenty of blow-outs, especially around the coast of Africa!

Love_Chocolate what's your guess on how this one got away from them. Even if they were running casing and cementing they should have known the well was flowing on them long before it got to the surface.

[redeyed]

This one claims that they had completed cementing and gas(I'll go ahead and assume gas) somehow entered the conductor, expanded and ignited most likely when it blew out at the rig.

[Kimiko]

Originally Posted by stumbler

Was that Absence of Malice?

Very GOOD!

[twofeathers]

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will announce plans to drill for oil and gas off America's coasts today, but will rule out drilling off California, Oregon and Washington state through 2017, administration officials say.

Obama's plans are widely expected to include opening new areas of coastal Virginia, the mid-Atlantic, Alaska and the Eastern Gulf of Mexico for drilling. But officials say the president will block drilling in Alaska's Bristol Bay, where Bush administration drilling plans angered environmentalists.

[ace's n 8's]

[QUOTE=King Nothing;2917127]

Oh look! BP lied. It's actually 5x worse than we were initially led to believe...

I suppose you should of jumped right on the boat and taken the bull by the horns and used your x-ray vision to look far into the depths of gulf and tell the world that it is leaking about 5000 barrels of crude.

[stumbler]

Originally Posted by redeyed

This one claims that they had completed cementing and gas(I'll go ahead and assume gas) somehow entered the conductor, expanded and ignited most likely when it blew out at the rig.

I suppose they could have circulated up a gas bubble and had it inside the conductor but it would have had to displace a lot of mud to do that and somebody should have noticed the flow.

Originally Posted by ace's n 8's

I suppose you should of jumped right on the boat and taken the bull by the horns and used your x-ray vision to look far into the depths of gulf and tell the world that it is leaking about 5000 barrels of crude.

Don't kid yourself Ace. For one thing they usually have underwater cameras and you can bet the British Petroleum had remote controlled subs in the water watching the well head and conductor. They would have launched them again off other craft after the rig sunk.

They've got the whole show on tape and British Petroleum damn well knows what's going on. But since knowledge of drilling operations is pretty limited to the people actually in the field they can tell the Coast Guard anything they want and that's what they've been doing.

Just like the cause of the blow out. They damn sure knew what they were doing at the time, they know what happened and they know how that well blew out. Its ridiculous to think that they weren't keeping real time logs of what they were doing and when. That's just standard procedure.

[love_chocolate]

My Honest opinion, human error, pressure error, of course I don't know how they mixed the cement slurry, did they use salt or some other substance to shorten to time for the cement to cure? Actually there are several reasons that could have caused, but I have to return to plain old error!

[love_chocolate]

Human Error!

[Wafarer]

Thanks for the good information, first hand, about off shore drilling. This got my mind off a few things bothering me.
Best of luck Americans!

[redeyed]

Originally Posted by stumbler

I suppose they could have circulated up a gas bubble and had it inside the conductor but it would have had to displace a lot of mud to do that and somebody should have noticed the flow.

I doubt a bubble would ignite. With the riser being 5000feet long and, from what I've learned of natural gas is that it takes a large amount of gas mixed with pressure and the right amount of air to expand and ignite.
The only way that could happen is with a blow out. A miss estimate of mother nature...

[Old Tool]

Originally Posted by Kimiko

I agree completely. But until that future day, we do have policy choices. We don't HAVE to suck every last drop out of the ground, regardless of the consequences.

I'm not sure we're even close to a policy that aims to suck every last drop out, regardless . . . but I understand the rhetoric

My original point being that policy is not currently driven by ethical and principle-driven leaders, but by the herd of ignorant and frightened voters (heavily influenced by the lobbies buying the media) - most of whom would riot in the streets if their modern conveniences got too expensive. It starts with folks like you and me deciding to live without the internal combustion engine and slowly convincing others to do the same. As long as we rationalize our choice to perpetuate this cycle, there will be no significant change and accidents like this will continue to occur.

[Distant Lover]

Originally Posted by Old Tool

It starts with folks like you and me deciding to live without the internal combustion engine and slowly convincing others to do the same.

I do not own a car and walk or ride a bicycle most places I go. I use about $8.00 of bicycle oil a year.

I am heavily dependent on foreign oil, but it is olive oil imported from the Mediterranean.

Just saying.

[RandyKnight]

Just my fukin LUCK !!! I have not been to New Orleans in 10 years and Harrahs Casino is putting me and a friend up for 5 days to gamble in NO...

Middle of May and that damn oil is gonna have all the oyster and shrimp beds shut down......

Land based Nat Gas
Land based Nat Gas
Land based Nat Gas
Land based Nat Gas
Land based Nat Gas
Land based Nat Gas
Land based Nat Gas
Land based Nat Gas

[ohms_law]

Originally Posted by Distant Lover

I do not own a car and walk or ride a bicycle most places I go. I use about $8.00 of bicycle oil a year.

I am heavily dependent on foreign oil, but it is olive oil imported from the Mediterranean.

Just saying.

How naive. You use electricity, right?
I'm not saying what you're doing is bad, it's just that driving only contributes a miniscule amount to the problems inherent in fossil fuel use.

I realize that you're simply trying to feel better about yourself though, like all of the other tree huggers, so whatever. If it makes you feel better, by all means continue doing what you're doing. It doesn't actually bother me in the least, as long as I'm allowed to point out how silly it all is every once in a while.

[Distant Lover]

Originally Posted by ohms_law

How naive. You use electricity, right?
I'm not saying what you're doing is bad, it's just that driving only contributes a miniscule amount to the problems inherent in fossil fuel use.

I realize that you're simply trying to feel better about yourself though, like all of the other tree huggers, so whatever. If it makes you feel better, by all means continue doing what you're doing. It doesn't actually bother me in the least, as long as I'm allowed to point out how silly it all is every once in a while.

Very little electricity is generated by petroleum.

[Distant Lover]

If this disaster hurts the GOP it will have done some good. However, it really is a tragedy for the wildlife, and for those humans whose livelihoods are jeopardized. It is a blow to the economy we do not need right now.

I hope it shuts Sarah Palin's mouth for awhile.

[Kimiko]

Originally Posted by ohms_law

How naive. You use electricity, right?
I'm not saying what you're doing is bad, it's just that driving only contributes a miniscule amount to the problems inherent in fossil fuel use.

I realize that you're simply trying to feel better about yourself though, like all of the other tree huggers, so whatever. If it makes you feel better, by all means continue doing what you're doing. It doesn't actually bother me in the least, as long as I'm allowed to point out how silly it all is every once in a while.

No sillier than Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity taking pride in how MUCH oil they use, just to be in my face.

[Kimiko]

Originally Posted by Distant Lover

Very little electricity is generated by petroleum.

He's right...(see graph #1)

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

http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/p...%20by%20sector

[ohms_law]

The fuck are you guys on? ~70% comes from fossil fuels, according to your own graph!

[King Nothing]

Originally Posted by ohms_law

How naive. You use electricity, right?
I'm not saying what you're doing is bad, it's just that driving only contributes a miniscule amount to the problems inherent in fossil fuel use.

I realize that you're simply trying to feel better about yourself though, like all of the other tree huggers, so whatever. If it makes you feel better, by all means continue doing what you're doing. It doesn't actually bother me in the least, as long as I'm allowed to point out how silly it all is every once in a while.

If you want to make a better argument, I'd would use "You use plastics, right?"

[stumbler]

Originally Posted by redeyed

I doubt a bubble would ignite. With the riser being 5000feet long and, from what I've learned of natural gas is that it takes a large amount of gas mixed with pressure and the right amount of air to expand and ignite.
The only way that could happen is with a blow out. A miss estimate of mother nature...

Actually if the gas gets to the surface it can be ignited pretty easily. One of the most common is pieces of formation blowing out and causing sparks off the iron.

And while they don't talk about it much, under the right conditions natural gas can create its own static electricity and ignite itself.

Originally Posted by ohms_law

The fuck are you guys on? ~70% comes from fossil fuels, according to your own graph!

The vast majority of our electricity is generated by burning coal which is also a fossil fuel. There are also electrical generation plants that run on natural gas, but even though they are cleaner and cheaper coal is the main fuel.

[Distant Lover]

By Matthew Bigg Matthew Bigg – Fri Apr 30, 8:49 pm ET
VENICE, Louisiana (Reuters) – Louisiana fishermen, who say they face ruin because of the huge Gulf of Mexico oil spill, were fast losing patience on Friday with what they say is the slow pace of efforts to contain the slick...

Jason Melerine, 26, said the root of the slow containment work lay in the imbalance between an oil giant and small fishermen. "They should not have waited so long. They should have addressed this (slick) very fast," he said.

"But they (the oil industry) have got so much money they don't have to worry about this"...

BP is also offering contracts to fishermen to use their boats in the clean-up effort, sad Vince Mitchell of O'Brien's Response Management, which is contracted by BP.

"Is this just a show to make BP look good, or are they actually going to hire us?" asked fisherman Mike Bruner, 48.

"If we can't go out and shrimp then at least give us a job," said Rangsey Pich, 24, part of a community of around 44 families from Cambodia who fish off the Louisiana coast. "It's your (BP's) fault that the oil is out there."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100501/...leak_fishermen

[Distant Lover]

Originally Posted by ohms_law

The fuck are you guys on? ~70% comes from fossil fuels, according to your own graph!

Kimiko started this thread in order to draw attention to the costs of the Republican demand for more oil drilling.

[redeyed]

Originally Posted by stumbler

Actually if the gas gets to the surface it can be ignited pretty easily. One of the most common is pieces of formation blowing out and causing sparks off the iron.

Oh yeah, but the reason I said that, was in that last link I posted, it stated that they had completed cementing and casing when a sudden abnormal pressure build up occured in the riser(I take it the riser is attached permanently to the rig?): "Gas or oil got into the pipe and as it came up through the riser it expanded rapidly and ignited."

I'm curious to know how air got into the riser..

Originally Posted by stumbler

And while they don't talk about it much, under the right conditions natural gas can create its own static electricity and ignite itself.

I think it goes together with the high pressures and air. Once the gas comes in contact with oxygen or any oxidizer in an enclosed (or choked) environment it expands extrememly fast, so fast that the ions start bouncing off each other and produce static electriciy. By then it already has oxygen and whole bunch of pressure, so it blows out, or for us the pipe blows apart.

[Kimiko]

Originally Posted by ohms_law

The fuck are you guys on? ~70% comes from fossil fuels, according to your own graph!

He said "petroleum", not "fossil fuels".

[ohms_law]

Well... OK. wrong topic, I guess...


but hey, lookie there! we get 600% more electricity from Hydro then we do from petroleum! How green is that!

[Incubus]

this thread has nothing to do with rough sex!

[richief]

It looks like The Gulf is pretty fucked.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8649862.stm

[Tightcuntlover]

BP's Deepwater Disaster: What Happened And Why?

April 30, 2010 - 2:37 pm
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Christopher HelmanBio | Email
Christopher Helman is an Associate Editor at Forbes, based in Houston


The speculation continues about what happened on the Deepwater Horizon and why. Facts are few, but more are emerging. So let's sum up what we think we know based on our own interviews, reports, deducations, and even the comment sections on countless internet sites.
First of all, it's likely that BP knows precisely what occurred. According to this 2002 article in Offshore, the Deepwater Horizon was set to be outfitted with a system called E-drill, which continuously beams data from rig operations to a monitoring center in Houston. This data is certainly logged. Until BP and Transocean show what they know, we're left with a lot of speculation.
We know with some certainty that workers were in the final stages of setting the final sections of pipe (production liner) in the hole and cementing it in place. The plan was to set cement plugs in the well, temporarily abandon it, and move the Deepwater Horizon off to a new drilling site within a couple days.
Instead, it appears that a gas bubble got into the well bore, causing what's called a "kick" as it traveled up the riser. Even a relatively small amount of gas a can cause big problems because a gas bubble will expand massively as it moves from high pressure at the seafloor to lower pressure at the surface. The friction caused by the gas bubble pushing up the pipe and displacing the drilling mud used to control the pressure could have created a static charge that ignited the gas into a fireball.
Blowout preventers (BOPs) are designed to deal with bubbles. Different control valves and rams can close in the well to various degrees (i.e. think of the difference between a sphincter and a guillotine). Why wasn't the BOP engaged at the time of the "kick." Perhaps there wasn't enough time to act. Even then, the big mystery is why the BOP still can't be activated now by the robotic submarines (ROVs) sent to the scene.
Some scenarios. Assume the workers did try to engage the BOP, but it didn't work. Why? One analyst I spoke with suggested that it could be that the kick pushed newly poured cement out of the casing, gumming up the controls. I ran that idea by a subsea engineer who has been responsible for BOPs in deepwater drilling offshore Brazil, and he felt it could be within the realm of possibility.
Another possibility--they tried to engage the BOP's shear ram (which is supposed to slice through the riser and seal off the hole) but there was something too big to shear. That could have been a solid steel joint between two sections of drill pipe. These joints come along about one foot in every 30 feet of pipe, so it would have been very unlucky for such a joint to be sitting right where the shear ram would try to cut--but possible.
Video shot by the robotic submarines (a.k.a. remote operated vehicles or ROVs) seems to indicate that oil is leaking from three spots in a pipe that is laying on the seafloor. The pipe would have to be a portion of the riser, which would have to still be attached to the BOP, but crimped and bent over. An uncuttable piece of joint lodged in the shear ram would perhaps explain why the ROVs haven't been able to subsequently engage the ram.
Something else to consider: it's been said that the workers were in the final stages of casing and cementing the hole and that within a couple days the Deepwater Horizon was to leave that spot to go drill a new prospect. My deepwater engineer source explains that the closer a rig gets to the end of a job like this, the more pressure there would be (from supervisors, etc) to not take a drastic step like engaging the BOP's shear ram. If they had suddenly disconnected the rig from the well at that point in the cementing process, "they might have lost the whole thing." On a well that cost BP and its partners $100 million to drill, none of the nine ill-fated Transocean and two Smith International employees on the rig floor would want to make that call.
Especially if they couldn't even imagine the scope of the disaster that unfolded. It's been 40 years since a blowout of this magnitude occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. None of those 11 workers who died on the rig floor could have imagined that this would happen to them. "We train people to cope with the unusual, but they very seldom see it," says the subsea engineer. "The equipment is designed to cope, but it very seldom needs to."


PS. Stumbler, Redeyed and Love chocolate......It's worth actually clicking on the link to read comments from readers at the end of the piece.

Here's an example:


lust another oil man
Reading through this article it is not the last operation you should study it the previous 3 or operation look for the last bop tests TO should perform these every 14 21 days these will reflect the state of the BOP. There would be an a emergency drill OR DRILLS performed or simulated to see if the automatic systems on the BOP were fully functioning and up to specification, and to were working with recommended manufactures specifications.
Were the crews fully capable of performing their tasks and understanding the assigned jobs. There is a severe shortage of experienced deep water drill crews world wide and some guys have climbed the tree very very quickly.
But getting back to the article there would have been a very comprehensive BP well program at the beginning of the operation the would have been DWOPS carried out prior to well start up.
There certainly would have daily instructions handed to the T.O. OIM/RIG SUPERINTENDANT then passed on to the drill crews.
The third party service engineers would also be involved with the daily operation and also reporting back on a daily basis to the own people in town (if they had any real concerns you can bet the people in town would know about it)
there will be speculation going on about this until the court cases and you can bet there will be court cases here.
There would have been a steady stream of information flow to and from the rig to town with all the automatic systems around theses days WITTS SAP HAWKS these system are never pulled until the rig is on the move to the next location so information will be available now if just a case who will release and when.
If litigation is involved I found in the past the truth Buried.
I will end this with a quote from a former CEO of a prominent drilling contractor at a company barbeque
Never let safety stand in the way of a dollar bill.

[redeyed]

But I figured a few of you would get a kick out of Mr.Limbaugh...

[King Nothing]

Ahhhh man! I came on here this morning for the sole purpose of posting Rush's comments on this thread! You beat me to it! LOL

[redeyed]

My apologies sir! lol

[stumbler]

Originally Posted by Tightcuntlover

BP's Deepwater Disaster: What Happened And Why?

April 30, 2010 - 2:37 pm
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Christopher HelmanBio | Email
Christopher Helman is an Associate Editor at Forbes, based in Houston


The speculation continues about what happened on the Deepwater Horizon and why. Facts are few, but more are emerging. So let's sum up what we think we know based on our own interviews, reports, deducations, and even the comment sections on countless internet sites.
First of all, it's likely that BP knows precisely what occurred. According to this 2002 article in Offshore, the Deepwater Horizon was set to be outfitted with a system called E-drill, which continuously beams data from rig operations to a monitoring center in Houston. This data is certainly logged. Until BP and Transocean show what they know, we're left with a lot of speculation.
We know with some certainty that workers were in the final stages of setting the final sections of pipe (production liner) in the hole and cementing it in place. The plan was to set cement plugs in the well, temporarily abandon it, and move the Deepwater Horizon off to a new drilling site within a couple days.
Instead, it appears that a gas bubble got into the well bore, causing what's called a "kick" as it traveled up the riser. Even a relatively small amount of gas a can cause big problems because a gas bubble will expand massively as it moves from high pressure at the seafloor to lower pressure at the surface. The friction caused by the gas bubble pushing up the pipe and displacing the drilling mud used to control the pressure could have created a static charge that ignited the gas into a fireball.
Blowout preventers (BOPs) are designed to deal with bubbles. Different control valves and rams can close in the well to various degrees (i.e. think of the difference between a sphincter and a guillotine). Why wasn't the BOP engaged at the time of the "kick." Perhaps there wasn't enough time to act. Even then, the big mystery is why the BOP still can't be activated now by the robotic submarines (ROVs) sent to the scene.
Some scenarios. Assume the workers did try to engage the BOP, but it didn't work. Why? One analyst I spoke with suggested that it could be that the kick pushed newly poured cement out of the casing, gumming up the controls. I ran that idea by a subsea engineer who has been responsible for BOPs in deepwater drilling offshore Brazil, and he felt it could be within the realm of possibility.
Another possibility--they tried to engage the BOP's shear ram (which is supposed to slice through the riser and seal off the hole) but there was something too big to shear. That could have been a solid steel joint between two sections of drill pipe. These joints come along about one foot in every 30 feet of pipe, so it would have been very unlucky for such a joint to be sitting right where the shear ram would try to cut--but possible.
Video shot by the robotic submarines (a.k.a. remote operated vehicles or ROVs) seems to indicate that oil is leaking from three spots in a pipe that is laying on the seafloor. The pipe would have to be a portion of the riser, which would have to still be attached to the BOP, but crimped and bent over. An uncuttable piece of joint lodged in the shear ram would perhaps explain why the ROVs haven't been able to subsequently engage the ram.
Something else to consider: it's been said that the workers were in the final stages of casing and cementing the hole and that within a couple days the Deepwater Horizon was to leave that spot to go drill a new prospect. My deepwater engineer source explains that the closer a rig gets to the end of a job like this, the more pressure there would be (from supervisors, etc) to not take a drastic step like engaging the BOP's shear ram. If they had suddenly disconnected the rig from the well at that point in the cementing process, "they might have lost the whole thing." On a well that cost BP and its partners $100 million to drill, none of the nine ill-fated Transocean and two Smith International employees on the rig floor would want to make that call.
Especially if they couldn't even imagine the scope of the disaster that unfolded. It's been 40 years since a blowout of this magnitude occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. None of those 11 workers who died on the rig floor could have imagined that this would happen to them. "We train people to cope with the unusual, but they very seldom see it," says the subsea engineer. "The equipment is designed to cope, but it very seldom needs to."


PS. Stumbler, Redeyed and Love chocolate......It's worth actually clicking on the link to read comments from readers at the end of the piece.

Here's an example:


lust another oil man
Reading through this article it is not the last operation you should study it the previous 3 or operation look for the last bop tests TO should perform these every 14 21 days these will reflect the state of the BOP. There would be an a emergency drill OR DRILLS performed or simulated to see if the automatic systems on the BOP were fully functioning and up to specification, and to were working with recommended manufactures specifications.
Were the crews fully capable of performing their tasks and understanding the assigned jobs. There is a severe shortage of experienced deep water drill crews world wide and some guys have climbed the tree very very quickly.
But getting back to the article there would have been a very comprehensive BP well program at the beginning of the operation the would have been DWOPS carried out prior to well start up.
There certainly would have daily instructions handed to the T.O. OIM/RIG SUPERINTENDANT then passed on to the drill crews.
The third party service engineers would also be involved with the daily operation and also reporting back on a daily basis to the own people in town (if they had any real concerns you can bet the people in town would know about it)
there will be speculation going on about this until the court cases and you can bet there will be court cases here.
There would have been a steady stream of information flow to and from the rig to town with all the automatic systems around theses days WITTS SAP HAWKS these system are never pulled until the rig is on the move to the next location so information will be available now if just a case who will release and when.
If litigation is involved I found in the past the truth Buried.
I will end this with a quote from a former CEO of a prominent drilling contractor at a company barbeque
Never let safety stand in the way of a dollar bill.

I actually feel quite vindicated by this article but we're still missing some crucial information. For one thing what exactly was the rig crew doing. If they had the casing or drill pipe open the well would have blown out both around the BOPs and also the inside of the pipe right in their faces on the rig floor and that would result in the well leaking from at least two places.

There is no excuse for BOP's to fail. That is just standard oilfield procedure and something not taken lightly since that's what keeps you from getting killed in a blowout and fire. If they didn't have accumulator pressure, or had the wrong sized pipe-rams in the BOP's there is no excuse for that.

Now as far as shear rams. If they've got them and haven't used them it simply means British Petroleum is willing to create all this environmental damage because they think it will be cheaper for them than possibly losing their well.

And what they are talking about here: "An uncuttable piece of joint lodged in the shear ram would perhaps explain why the ROVs haven't been able to subsequently engage the ram."

What they are talking about there is what we call a "tool joint." Picture a pipe that is five inches in diameter, and approximately 30 feet long. But the sections of pipe have to screw together so they have a threaded "box end" (or female) and a threaded "pin end" (male end) which are more like eight inches in diameter.

If just by bad luck when the pipe stopped in the BOP's there was a tool joint in the pipe rams or shear rams it would be too big to close around or cut off.

But here's where they're bullshitting. If they've got a tool joint in their shear rams all they have to do is open them and the pipe will fall, and then they can close them again, cut off the drill pipe, and stop the flow of oil and gas.

[RandyKnight]

Originally Posted by stumbler

I actually feel quite vindicated by this article but we're still missing some crucial information. For one thing what exactly was the rig crew doing. If they had the casing or drill pipe open the well would have blown out both around the BOPs and also the inside of the pipe right in their faces on the rig floor and that would result in the well leaking from at least two places.


But here's where they're bullshitting. If they've got a tool joint in their shear rams all they have to do is open them and the pipe will fall, and then they can close them again, cut off the drill pipe, and stop the flow of oil and gas.

stumbler....this is off topic in a way from this thread but I can not find the one on the gas drilling...because of that one I have been asking questions of my gas guys and doing research on the water fracking problem...

I found this company....ECOSPHERE TECHNOLOGIES INC

They say they can solve some of the problems we are having here in the Barnett Shale Ft Worth....

*( It offers its patented Ecosphere Ozonix technology to assist gas and oil companies in treating water used to fracture natural gas wells; in eliminating the use of chemicals to treat bacteria and reduce scaling in the fracturing process; in eliminating the need to dispose of contaminated water, which flows back after fracturing wells)*

http://investing.businessweek.com/re...ticker=ESPH:US

You seem to know this field what do you think?

When the chart looks right I am planning on buying a chunk of the stock.

Thanks...

[Kimiko]

I understand they're trying to put a gigantic cement condom over the place the oil is gushing from. I don't think this will prove to be a reliable method of oil spill control....