Slowing Flow Rates and Enhancing Oil Recovery in the Louisiana Disaster

The oil pressure inside the pipe also increases with depth on account of its own vertical head, but not by as much as the denser seawater. Thus there will be somewhat less pressure differential at greater depth.

Evidently the the blow out device didn't work. Could this have been caused by the pressure being reduced too slowly during the event? Is the "Blow Out Device" designed to function when there is a rapid reduction in pipe pressure? If that is the case is there anyway the pressure could be rapidly increased and then decreased at a rate fast enough to activate the device?

Gavilan

The blow out valve has not responded to external, manual deployment by robots and there are no other functional throttling devices that I am aware of.

In this case the length of pipe remaining is the only restriction to flow we have.

Now, instead of 1,000 bbl of oil/day, I'm hearing that it's really 5,000bbl/day.

Look out on shore. Exxon Valdez all over again.

Someone suggested squeezing the pipe.

Flex pipe drill head called for, along with surfacturant vacumm skim suckers.

Robots and nano tech all call for deep deep drilling that goes up due to specific grav differences.

Norpe to quantynm betorfore iditorsec te do overs loss betimein.

Hoover vaccumin.

Squeezing the pipe deserves a GA.

"Norpe to quantynm betorfore iditorsec te do overs loss betimein." = OT (Off Topic, not Old Testament)

"Hoover vaccumin." For a little free association: "Summer is icumen in. Lhude sing Goddamn"_{Ezra Pound} Or "Summer is a cumin seed"_{PDQ Bach}

At 5000 barrels aday it will exceed the Exxon Valdez spill in about 39 days.

Why is there no technical information available to the public?

What is the well head pressure?

What is the status of the riser?

How many breaks in the riser are there? Where are they?

Why is there so little information? Its not like they are protecting proprietary information.

"Its not like they are protecting proprietary information."

They're protecting their a$$.

Guess we will see less commercials for a while about oil drilling in the ocean now. Drill, babe, drill? - Sad anyway

there are a number of unconventional ways to address this, I came up with two of them yesterday in my discussions with a former co-worker, He had a couple more himself. The company Wild Well Control has the contract to shut this well in and get it under control. They have some smart guys who I am sure have come up with equally ingenious ideas. I cobbled together a sketch of one device (a clamp to crush and fold the pipe to slow the flow so that the riser could be hot-tapped and cemented) and emailed it to him. Superior oil services, a subsidiary of Wild Well, makes a clamp-on wellhead flange device for use in blown-out wells. the riser could be cut-off a few feet above the existing BOP, the temporary flange could be placed, and a gate valve (open during installation of course) could be attached then closed. then a new BOP could be mounted on the gate valve and well remediation then could begin. (fishing the production tubing out of the well and either finishing the cementing job, or plugging it with cement so that a new well can be drilled nearby.)

Another idea is to cut the riser and insert a packer into the riser and expand it.

Yes the BOP is inoperative, it is unclear why, rumor has it that BP has a policy of requiring a software lockout on the rams during cementing operations (which historically is the most dangerous phase, when most blowouts occur.) if that is in fact the case BP in in very deep do-do. Cementing is the time when you need the BOP to be working the most. There was reportedly one manual override on the drill floor, but there is some question if anyone had time to get to it and activate it. everyone that was on the rig floor is missing and presumed dead.

Yes, there is a LOT of A$$ covering going on right now. Most of it originating at BP.

Your right ,due to the missing personnel BP wont be giving information to anybody until the government force it out of them in due course.

It is possible that when the riser collapsed it damaged the BOP and that is where the leakage is taking place. I wonder where was the drill string at the time the accident took place? There are so many unknowns it is impossible to speculate on resolving the accident.

One thought that entered my mind would be to fit a shape charge on the pipe to collapse it, but if the leaks are under the BOP it will be impossible to get to it.

What is the shut in pressure of this well in psi. meaning if the BOP was closed what pressure would build up? Another view is the formation pressure at 13,000 feet below the seabed sealed up. What is the temperature of the Oil gas mixture at the BOP..why hasn't an infrared scan been done or thermographic image? what is the ratio of Oil to Distillate,( natural gas liquids)? What is the Viscosity.. the specific gravity of the fluid being discharged? The information that is being presented just doesn't fit. 5,000 barrels at 42 gallons per barrel is 210,000 gallons per day divided by 24 hrs = 8750 gallons per hour or 145.83 GPM Gallons per minute. That is awfully low.. Some fire water guns,(monitors) put out more volume than that. Reading some geology info... for every mile below the surface of the earth the temperature increases by as much as 50 degrees F. 13,000 feet below the sea bed is where the oil is coming from., so could it be 100 degrees F plus the ambient of 32 degrees at the ocean bottom. Of course some cooling will take place in the hundreds of feet of silt that is above bedrock..but that might only lower the temperature to half of the total of say 132 degrees F so it could be around 66 degrees F.. not conducive to freezing methane hydrates. My opinion..The 100 ton containment vessel,( minus buoyancy) was not heavy enough to counter the blowout pressure. Also..In my opinion BP is BS ing everyone and people in the industry are too intimidated to speak up. the press and the government are too ignorant. MMS is keeping quite since their collective bu##s are on the line. It's a manufactured Mystery.

Its more like 20,000 barrels a day.

Reservoir pressure - hydrostatic pressure - ambient pressure at the floor = about 9000 psi. (Single source.) I have no idea what the real numbers are. I don't know the reason for the lack of information. Surely the physical variables are known.

Gavilan

Fold the pipe to Stop the Leak. BP and its contractors possess a tool that can stop the leak. Their giant hydraulic shear, fitted with blades, has already cut through the pipe more than once. Remove the blades, and it becomes a pincher. Any child knows how to stop the flow through a garden hose - fold the hose. Am I alone in thinking that the hydraulic shear could have been (and still can be) used to stop the leak by crushing the riser pipe? Even 40,000 pounds per square inch well pressure would be stopped by crushing and folding over that 22" diameter ductile steel riser pipe. If it works, but ruins the tool, who cares - they've got spares. There's only one Gulf of Mexico. Fold the pipe. Stop the leak.

Conceptually this may seem simple and sound. However, there is devilry in the details.

The riser has already been folded a few feet above the top of the BOP, and the leaks did not stop. This was a rather loose fold, though. But if the steel is too hard or brittle, a tighter fold might just snap off altogether. Even if the steel is reasonably ductile, a tight fold could weaken it so that it would not withstand the pressure.

Today one of the live feeds was actually working, and they were tantalizingly close to pushing the cap+pipe over the riser stub from the BOP. I will look again soon, with hopes for further progress.

As we speak there continues the ongoing environmental disaster taking place in the Gulf of Mexico.

Because BP has shown little interest in plugging the leak and continues to focus on oil recovery; The United States of America is requesting white paper proposals on 5 related issues – The most interesting and what I believe to be the most critical issue is – "Oil Head Control and Submerged Oil Response."

The submission website can be found here –

http://homeport.uscg.mil/mycg/portal/ep/oil_spill/oil_spill_prop_form.jsp linked from http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=45436&dcn=e_gvet

I share this with you in hopes that you would take a few moments to consider my proposed method of plugging the drill pipe which I believe is the source of the oil flow; develop your own method by modifying this proposal or creating an entirely new one.

Although BP has been very stingy in sharing technical data with the public I believe it is possible that the following conditions exist.

The (Reservoir Pressure) – (Hydrostatic Pressure) –(Ambient Pressure) at the BOP is about 9500 psi. The true extend of the leak can be simply determined by knowing the area of the pipe and the speed of the flow. It is area X speed. It is inconceivable that BP does not have an accurate measurement of the flow rate.

The total force across the face of an 8 inch drill pipe at 9500 psi would be approximately 1.9 million pounds. This makes plugging the pipe quite problematic but I don't believe it makes it impossible.

I wish to suggest the following Porcupine Plug Pipe Assembly.

A slightly smaller diameter pipe is inserted into the drill pipe. This insertion pipe has barbed quills of titanium (or other more suitable material) encased in and running the length on the outside wall of the insertion pipe.

This insertion pipe is open on the upstream end. It has a tapered downstream inside diameter that allows the oil to pass through during insertion. The oil is allowed to pass through the insertion pipe in order to reduce the amount of force required to insert the pipe and plug assembly. Insertion could be accomplished through the use of a suspended reaction block and a specially designed hydraulic ram.

The insertion pipe has an internal plug sub-assembly that is so shaped and designed that it allows the oil to pass through until the plug is released at which time the oil pressure will drive the plug into the tapered downstream end. This will cause the plug to collapse and seal the downstream end of the pipe while forcing that end of the insertion pipe to expand against the drill pipe. This will cause the quilled strips to dig into the inside wall of the drill pipe holding the plug pipe in place long enough for the internal pressure to build up inside the insertion pipe. At this point the oil will no longer be flowing through the insertion pipe. The pressure will build up inside the insertion pipe exceeding the specifically designed material yield stress of the insertion pipe which will allow it to expand against the drill pipe driving more barbs into the drill pipe and sealing the insertion pipe/ drill pipe interface.

The challenge for the this design is to minimize the insertion force so as not to fracture the drill pipe and to develop a friction or holding force that will significantly exceed the (pressure) X (area) of the leaking pipe. The quill strips must be so designed as to allow for insertion while resisting the tendency of the oil pressure to drive the pipe back out. This can be accomplished by designing the quill strips so that the quills will flex downward during inserting and then rebound to an optimal angle relative to the quill base so that the shear stress is minimized by maximizing longitudinal compression on the quills. This is accomplished by minimizing the angle of the quills relative to the insertion pipe.

The required number of quills required to hold the pipe will be defined by the strength of the material in compression and shear. Roughly calculated as N= where N is the number of required quills, P = to the pipe pressure, Area = area of the pipe face, and F is the limiting force each quill can withstand in compression or shear.

Designing the Porcupine Pipe Plug Assembly so that the barbs can withstand the required force will define the needed length of the Assembly. The longer the assembly the more problematic insertion will be.

The release mechanism for the internal plug assembly must be extremely reliable. A mechanical locking and release method with an activation lanyard may be the best approach. A small explosive method could be carefully considered but must not create a hydraulic impulse that could possibly fracture the drill pipe.

Given a good lab machine shop and the people who work in it such a device and the device used to insert it could be built in a reasonably short time.

You have or have access to the expertise to stop this thing. My suggestion may not be a workable solution – in the end it matters not to me. My goal is to try to get credentialed people who have the training and understanding of Physics, Engineering and Material Science to have enough faith in their own knowledge and understanding to make some proposals.

If you have the technical expertise to do the Engineering then give it a try – the stakes are enormous. The absolute worst case scenario is that you get a bit of refreshment in basic engineering/physics principles.

Don't sit back and just watch as BP turns our gulf states into another Nigerian Environmental Wasteland.

Mark J. Carter

If it is an 8-inch pipe, its area is 16π ≈ 50.3 in². This times 9500 psi ≈ 478,000 lb. This makes your strategy even easier, though there may be even better strategies.

The force is calculated by multiplying the area X pressure where the area is that of a circle with the pipe ID as the radius. Since my last post I believe the pressure to be much less than 9500psi.