JBE wrote:There is speculation that there could have been some type of hydraulic leak from the BOP before the blowout. Also. there was a BOP stack on this well that had both shear as well as annular. I'm guessing the annulars worked b/c the oil is leaking from the riser and not from around it. As far as why the shear ram failed to cut is anyone's guess....maybe there was a joint in the stack that it failed to go through...Maybe there was a tubing hanger in the stack?
Wow ... and I thought the computer industry had a lot of buzz-words! :D :p
But seriously, I was watching the news just now and they said that the lead relief-well is 2-miles down but will only become effective in August ... that's a heck of a long time to wait. I know secondary wells aren't a fix in themselves but if it was down to me I think I'd want them in place because if stuff does hit the fan then at least you wouldn't be waiting 3 months for the solution to start working.
Bottom hole pressure in any well is held down by the hydrostatic pressure of the drilling fluid. If the bottom hole pressure overcomes the hydrostatic pressure above it then the wellbore fluids push all the drilling fluid up. A blowout is any unwanted influx of wellbore fluids. Most of them are controlled by circulation of heavier drilling mud.
JBE wrote:I agree...BOP's aren't 100% fail-safe...they are mechanical devices that can fail, especially if not properly tested and maintained to ensure that they do work. Even so, there is still a chance of failure. Also, relief wells don't stop blow outs; they only give you a way to kill the well in the event of one.
BOP's aren't the only safeguard. The #1 safeguard is training, training and more training. Also necessary is a proper cementing job as well as maintaining the correct mud weight to overcome the bottomhole pressure to prevent kicks.
There is speculation that there could have been some type of hydraulic leak from the BOP before the blowout. Also. there was a BOP stack on this well that had both shear as well as annular. I'm guessing the annulars worked b/c the oil is leaking from the riser and not from around it. As far as why the shear ram failed to cut is anyone's guess....maybe there was a joint in the stack that it failed to go through...Maybe there was a tubing hanger in the stack? The BOP did activate...it just failed to do it's job completely.
Kind of curious about your statement regarding there being blow outs "all the time"? I would like to see the data to support that. If that were true, we'd be skimming oil of the top of the water out here rather than having to drill for it.
Kind of have to disagree with oil being a "convenience"....I think of it more as a necessary evil.
I was exaggerating slightly there, but there are well blowouts on land as well, so apparently we aren't immune to it happening. I should have worded it as necessary evil as well, in today's society we are so geared to using oil, it will take forever to wean ourselves off of it. I also realize that the relief wells do nothing to prevent the blowouts from happening. But in BP's case there was no Plan B, maybe relief wells would have been a good idea..
Those who choose to live a life without risks, arrive safely at death's door.
A relief well in place would definitely allow for the placement of whatever device is necessary to shut off the well completely. There is a video on YouTube documenting Russia using a nuclear device to seal a similar leak (well was above ground, but a nuke would still function underwater). It was pretty interesting. Let me find the link:A Nuclear Explosion Puts Out a Gas Well Blaze
That nuke is just so Russian ... they have a much simpler/colder attitude to the potential for collateral damage. A nuke might contaminate ground water and lead to birth defects in local populations ... but it gets the job done - just do it. Same with crowd control ... bit of a protest going on with lots of innocent people in it ... send in the army and break some heads ... a few innocent people might be killed but it'll get the job done. I really wouldn't like to be in any kind of hostage situation in Russia ... eg. the Beslan school and the Moscow Theatre sieges being good/bad examples.
As a chemist, I can never understand when people only think that it is the oil spilling and the water being damaged. There are massive amounts of untracked volatile organic compounds being spewed off of the slick and into the air in super high concentrations. Most of those volatile organics are probably carcinogenic as all get out.
Oil isn't just gasoline and tar, there are various pressurized gaseous molecules trapped in that reserve too, and they aren't sticking around in the water. They're going directly into the air that the whole gulf is breathing. Nobody is talking about that, and BP isn't even required to release numbers on it.
I wouldn't be surprised if the carcinogenic VOC air concentration is 3 to 4 hundred times what is deemed acceptable by the EPA, but hey, we don't look at anything the oil industry puts into the air as their fault....so why start now?
"Nothing is so fatal to the progress of the human mind as to suppose that our views of science are ultimate; that there are no mysteries in nature; that our triumphs are complete, and that there are no new worlds to conquer."
Sir Humphry Davy
It's soo~oo much worse than we've been led to believe.
Get this-- imagine the first four point hurricane (a really, REALLY common occurrence in the gulf) running amok, and not only spreading the problem, but preventing effective relief efforts. Now imagine about double the initial estimates of oil leakage, with a healthy dose of bullshit response from BP, and what you have is quite possibly the Mayan doomsday.
Surprise! It had nothing to do with the sun.
Now, a smart president would have BANNED (you heard me) volunteer organizations from working in the US. Why? Because they're going to work anyway, and we should get them working in, say, Mexico. Or the Gulf itself.
THEN, create jobs cleaning up the oil. Hello? Economic boom? It worked pretty well for FDR. Just create jobs willy nilly, and surprise surprise, we actually need this done. Greater unity of personnel, get FEMA off their *** and hiring like mad...yeah. "But what about the cost of this policy shift?" Get BP to pay for it. That's right, shell out the cash. You're MAKING MONEY off of this anyway, by using the oil treatment chemical MANUFACTURED BY A SUBSIDIARY of your own company.
