Oil Rig Explosion

#352
#352
BP restarts 'top kill' effort - CNN.com

BP's much-anticipated effort to cap its undersea gusher in the Gulf of Mexico was temporarily suspended at midnight and was restarted in the last hour, a BP executive said.

The "top kill" procedure ended "just before midnight, when we stopped pumping operations," Doug Suttles, the company's chief operating officer, told reporters earlier. BP had been evaluating the results of the first round of pumping over the past 16 hours.
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OK.
 
#354
#354
Velo Vol said:
BP restarts 'top kill' effort - CNN.com



OK.
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Ok... stopping the pumping operations versus stopping the pumping completely are two different things and I probably played the nuance. Let me try to explain what I'm talking about by giving an example: You are blowing up a really big ballon and you stop to take a breath. What do you do? Most people squeeze the end of the balloon to stop the air from rushing out. That is what is happening here. If they stopped pumping entirely it's like letting all the air out. Since we can't squeeze the end to stop the flow - we have to keep pumping enough mud to match the amount being displaced by the well (you know - this is an excellent analogy so I'm going to copywrite it for my own personal gain)... Anway, while the operations were stopped - they were able to evaluate pressures, temperatures, etc to see if we were doing any good. It also gave them more time to refill/remix the mud. But, the pumping never stopped.
 
#355
#355
tigervol9802 said:
Never mind what the guy on the boat says......
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It doesn't bother me. There are times since I've been out here that I was watching the news and said "WTF! I can't believe they are doing that crap!" and then... I realized that I was talking about myself and didn't exactly recall doing what was reported.

We've been conditioned to believe whatever we see on the news or read in the papers. I'm no different... In this case - it just happens to be in my industry and I'm on the scene. Tomorrow I may be screaming at some #2head that makes baby food for intentionally adding botulin toxins to their food for population control.
 
#356
#356
Orangetoes said:
It doesn't bother me. There are times since I've been out here that I was watching the news and said "WTF! I can't believe they are doing that crap!" and then... I realized that I was talking about myself and didn't exactly recall doing what was reported.

We've been conditioned to believe whatever we see on the news or read in the papers. I'm no different... In this case - it just happens to be in my industry and I'm on the scene. Tomorrow I may be screaming at some #2head that makes baby food for intentionally adding botulin toxins to their food for population control.
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We all need these reminders. My disconnect moment was the press conf. from the Coast Guard guy who was in charge until recently (along with Gibbs and someone from the EPA). Their story of the events and responses to questions added much needed clarity and pointed out clear misstatements appearing both in the press and from others in the administration (e.g. Salazar). It was quite enlightening and a bit frightening to see how the press's version of events take on a life of their own.
 
#357
#357
tigervol9802 said:
Never mind what the guy on the boat says......
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I cited the link to illustrate my earlier post--not specifically to prove Orangetoes "wrong."

If Orangetoes stated his credentials earlier, I missed it. I gather from one of his posts that he may be working in the industry. If so, I'm sure he knows more about this than 95% of the dopey reporters on TV.

But for all I know (now) he's just another person on the Internets who may or may not have a better handle on real-time information than CNN.
 
#358
#358
At any rate CNN is having a field day over the fact that BP "stopped" pumping mud for 16 hours without telling the media.

I think the media should be more interest in whether (or how much) mud is leaking from the well, rather than the exact timetable for the pumping. But that's just me.

Maybe Larry King will get to the bottom of that.
 
#359
#359
So, orangetoes, is Bill Nye completely off-base when he says that he thinks that the ships just ran out of mud and had to get more?

Why did you have to pump, without gaining headway (or in other words, close your fingers over the tip of the balloon), for 16 hours and then start again? Did it take that long to generate the new mud formulation?
 
#360
#360
According to the Kent Wells BP May 24 Tech Talk video they had in the neighborhood of 80,000 barrels of mud ready to be pumped. If they ran out I'd say Operation Top Kill has gone kaput.
 
#361
#361
TennTradition said:
So, orangetoes, is Bill Nye completely off-base when he says that he thinks that the ships just ran out of mud and had to get more?

Why did you have to pump, without gaining headway (or in other words, close your fingers over the tip of the balloon), for 16 hours and then start again? Did it take that long to generate the new mud formulation?
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There were four mud boats around the rig that was doing the actual pumping. As one would run out of mud, they would change over to the next one. That doesn't even include the additional mud that was onboard the big drillship on location (Enterprise). The plan always was to stop pumping for a certain amount of time to ascertain whether it was working.

This is where we get into stuff that I'm not an expert in and I can only go off of what I've "learned" or picked up over the last 15 years or so. My understanding is they usually circulate mud (or any drilling fluid) "bottom up" through the drill string. Because we are trying to inject the mud through the choke and kill lines via a subsea hose, they are having to fight through the entire well-bore to get mud to the bottom. Every drop that makes it adds up and they are hoping for a cumulative win here. The mud that doesn't make it just gets blown back up the riser.
 
#362
#362
Sounds like we might need the crew of Armageddon here. If they can do it on an asteroid, they can do it anywhere.
 
#364
#364
BigPapaVol said:
Sounds like we might need the crew of Armageddon here. If they can do it on an asteroid, they can do it anywhere.
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Harry Stamper's dead though and you can't trust Rockhound if there's a nuclear device laying around.
 
#368
#368
tigervol9802 said:
What happened?
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Lot's of mud pumped - lots of mud coming back out of the riser. We just stopped the mud pumping operatons about an hour ago and they are going to reevaluate this evening while getting the next das worth of mud ready. I think they pumped about 10,000 barrels of mud (for those that don't know - 1 barrel equals 42 gallons).

The good news is that everything is in place to move immediately if the top kill fails. Basically, we'll have to cut the broken riser away, remove the LMRP, and then stack another BOP on top of it. Or, we'll cut the riser away and then put an improved containment dome on top of the LMRP. Either way is ready to go just waiting on MMS and USCG approval. The top kill is still the preferred way to go - but, my confidence level is pretty low right now.
 
#370
#370
Orangetoes said:
It's not looking good for the home team anymore...
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Thanks for posting Orangetoes. I was beginning to feel this way, just judging on how much mud was pushing back out the riser vs. working its way into the well. However, my feelings were almost surely speculation because I have no idea how much total volume is actually being pumped.

I hate to hear this. I saw the animations on CNN today for the next option. Is this not the preferred option because there will still be some leakage around the device that is lowered over the top of the BOP?

If top kill fails, and the next attempt is successful, how many days do you think that it will be before things are generally contained?
 
#371
#371
TennTradition said:
Thanks for posting Orangetoes. I was beginning to feel this way, just judging on how much mud was pushing back out the riser vs. working its way into the well. However, my feelings were almost surely speculation because I have no idea how much total volume is actually being pumped.

I hate to hear this. I saw the animations on CNN today for the next option. Is this not the preferred option because there will still be some leakage around the device that is lowered over the top of the BOP?

If top kill fails, and the next attempt is successful, how many days do you think that it will be before things are generally contained?
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You are more than welcome. I tried to look for the animation on CNN this morning but the internet is so slow out here that I finally gave up. So, I'm not sure what they are saying is the next option. I did find this gem though - If "top kill" fails, the next step would be to place a custom-built cap known as the "lower marine riser package" over the leak, BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said. He said several versions of the device are "waiting to go." What they've done here is show their ignorance. There is already a LMRP on the BOP. What we have is an improved cap for the LMRP like the original containment dome. In theory, this new cap will contain most, if not all, of the oil. The problem with it is that the damaged riser must be cut away to fit it on. That would leave nothing but an unrestricted open hole from the top of the BOP until the cap is place which could take about a day.

I'm not sure I could give an accurate time-frame for the well to be killed/100% contained. But, I think we are 2-3 days away. We're close - but, I'd wait to see how the top kill goes today before I put any money on it...
 
#373
#373
Are there concerns about the new BOP cap clogging with hydrates like the larger cap that was first tried?

Is the idea that this smaller cap can be backed away and cleaned out much more easily that the first cap (which was huge) in case the hydrates clog it up again? Or, is it fitted with a methanol feed to dissolve the hydrates? I suppose that its smaller size might allow for less water entrainment as well, which might leave less room for hydrate formation (unless the water coming out with the oil/gas is plenty to form hydrates given the right conditions).
 
#374
#374
TennTradition said:
Are there concerns about the new BOP cap clogging with hydrates like the larger cap that was first tried?

Is the idea that this smaller cap can be backed away and cleaned out much more easily that the first cap (which was huge) in case the hydrates clog it up again? Or, is it fitted with a methanol feed to dissolve the hydrates? I suppose that its smaller size might allow for less water entrainment as well, which might leave less room for hydrate formation (unless the water coming out with the oil/gas is plenty to form hydrates given the right conditions).
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Wow - those are some really good questions. Yes - there will always be a concern with hydrates. Yes, the first cap was huge and that was one of the problems. This new one (it's actually the fourth one that was built and is named after one of the engineers who came up with the improved design) has multiple penetrations to allow for methanol injection. More importantly, the Enterprise will already be connected to it by drill string when it's placed over the LMRP. The original device was set first (full of water) and the Enterprise was going to attach to it later. It's huge size and being full of water caused it to ice up faster than the ROV could pump methanol to it. The new one will be full of methanol before it's stabbed.
 
#375
#375
here's a schematic of what's going on .....

Efforts to Stop the Leaking Oil in the Gulf of Mexico - Graphic - NYTimes.com

top-kill.png
 
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