Oil Spill

If they can get a pipe inside the bore to 'siphon' off a proportion of the oil, couldn't they use a similar pipe as a tampon applicator? (just need to find the right kind of tampon) - or maybe like the balloon-on-a-catheter I seem to remember seeing used for doing some kind of medical procedure in arteries? (pump in two-part resin, one part at a time, maybe?).

Just chucking in ideas.

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2010/05/jon-stewart-does-the-bp-oil-spill/

Sure makes all the ideas here 1000% more viable than BP's.

unable to connect

Try this

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-may-13-2010/there-will-be-blame

Thanks. Just had a sneak peek. I'll enjoy later. Not much to lough about nowadays.

Agreed. This provides some levity though.

WHICH COMPANY CAN BLOW A STRONG TUBULAR BIG DIAMETER HOSE - AND LET IT BE B.I.G.G. - HDPE /PPHDPE and can it be reinforced? length 5500 Feet plus. When open / diameters above 16 feet welcome.... What are the restrictions and how to overcome these?

I hear, as the junk/mud failed (as predicted) that they now intend to cut off the bent bits and fit a smaller dome.

You have to ask why they can't understand; A. to beat the hydrates they need either a broad after catching system (DV's), or B. a pressure seal, to defeat expansion.

BUT: if you are going to cut off the bent bits - so fully open the flow - WHY wouldn't you just force a new pipe down the well?

One with an expanding collar on the end to seal the gap to the drilled bore?

Am I being silly on the practicality Rorsch?

Running what amounts to a pile driver a mile down is a good trick.

I wonder if there is even such a machine?

wouldn't cutting of the damaged section decrease the velocity of the stream of oil?

& wouldn't that decrease the mixing?

resulting in less of an emulsion....

on the other hand, aren't the hydrates water soluble?

I don't know about the pile driver.... but would be worth looking into for future safety measures.

back to beat on my old drum...when they were setting up to leave this well, they had set packers, and were filling the intervening space with concrete, which was being pumped into that space through drill pipe. (as I understand it.) This was what failed, because of the massive subterranean pressures, and perhaps an improperly set packer, but I also understand that some of the casing came back up too.. (no more mud in the hole?) so then the packer, concrete, and drill pipe all attempted to blow out the top. When the shear rams tried to close and shear the drill pipe, as they are designed to do, they could not also shear the casing and concrete that was also in the bore.

However, I believe it is a standard practice to come back after a well has been shut down, and drill through the concrete and packer that were left before. I also believe that they can drill through drill pipe if necessary, or perform stab operations to retrieve drill strings that have been dropped or sheared off. What this means to me is that there is a reasonable possibility of using standard drill technology to cut through all the crap in the top of the wellbore.

Also, i believe that the location for the mud injection is the ports provided in the bop stack in the 'Drill Spool'.

so I again suggest, filling lengths of drill pipe with concrete, letting it harden, and thing drilling in with that... but also pump in some heavy weight mud through the spool. The combined weight should be sufficient to oppose the oil pressure, and fill the hole with solid concrete/steel and mud. Certainly, if nothing else, the drill string, if heavy enough, will also eliminate maybe 25 percent of the potential flow.

Chris

Hi Chris, I don't think the ports are the ideal inputs for MUD. Think of a spray gun where the air sucks the paint out of a pot.

In the mud attempt, I believe that IF they injected 10% downwards through the ports, they have been lucky.

The 90%, to my believe, will have been "placed" on the ocean bed, and came out of the leak places.

Otherwise they should have improved this test further.

Do the rigs not normally operate mud through the drilling pipe? They have even MUD ENGINEERS on board of rigs. Is there one here to elaborate?

I think with the pipe cut and the oil spewing out, sending Mud down through those ports is a lost deal and will never succeed anymore in this well, before the flow is down.

With the bend in the pipe, they have had their best possible shot.

They can inject mud through those ports, if they shut the flow down and send the mud in with a far higher pressure.

The vessel then is at rest and the heavier components sink down.

When the BOP is open there is room for experiments to send things down.

Even

25.000 silver bullets that are fired down from a machine gun might or might not make one big clot.

Or if you prefer,... lead.

The long heavy pipe as you describe, could do it also as a plunger down, if you can make it heavy enough to start and widen it to seal when inside.

But where to start?

But where to start?

Start drilling the hole for the explosives.

If opted for this

They'll need a high rig tower to connect the pipes and that can keep the pipes lifted in the same time they are screwed together and hang their way down.

Quite a weight.

"Getting 100 pipes screwed together on top of each other is also quite a job."

"They'll need a high rig tower to connect the pipes and that can keep the pipes lifted in the same time they are screwed together and hang their way down."

This is exactly what drilling rigs really do... they are designed to assemble drill strings, and lower them into the hole, and sometimes turn the string. A "Triple" rig can assemble 3 lengths of pipe. They are also rated for the "Hook Load", which determines the weight of the drill string/bit they can lift. I've heard of "Million Pound Hook Load" rigs. I think that is enough.

Chris

Sure, but normally they don't tend to "hang" the pipes up, but rest them and attach them on top of the one that "sits" already.

D,

I think every time a rig starts to pull the drill string from the wellbore, and disassemble it in the process, they are necessarily holding the whole weight of the drillstring.

Chris

Not so much a pile driver - more like a drill pipe. Hole-saw if you like, so it will self center on the smaller bore below the casing.

Yes, you need a rig to run it, but you'd also that for the oil and gas that which is soon to come up the pipe.

Danger wise, if there is any sort of current, the oil/gas will be coming up anywhere except vertically above the well.

Yes the flow will increase - while you cut off the bent stuff and move it out of the way. But if the pipe is set up and only needs to be spotted and dropped in, then the flow increase is only for a shot period, until the pipe is set and the relief valve is switched from vent to 'up'.

Unless you get it totally wrong - then - as we know - it takes longer.

You need a 'mid water relief valve' to avoid a repeat of the rig swamped in oil and gas until you are ready for it - i.e. the leak will continue for several more hours during the operation.

This is not a plugging exercise, having to resist well pressure. It's annologous to screwing a new length of pipe into a fitting with flow.

Question is how bent or misaligned is the casing, given its sticking up in a hundred/s feet of silt and has had a tug or two from the sinking event?

Can you get a straight pipe to find the well bore at the bottom of a badly misaligned or banana shape casing? Or is it still straight?

Only BP can tell us.

Mind you - if they told us the realities - they might not have 20,000 'solutions' to wade through.

Getting 100 pipes screwed together on top of each other is also quite a job. Lowering it down just on top over the cut pipe will be another (almost) mission impossible. And when it works, the oil will be on top faster as we can imagine and we repeat the expansion, hopefully not triggering a new explosion at the receivers' place. Remember how the Horizon got lost? - 1 near spark. But it could work. If they prepare a cone and have some pipe left on the BOP, The weight of the pipe will press to a pretty good seal, if done well. Keeping this pipe straight up will be a issue too. And too much move can break the seal down. If the cut isn't clean enough, a plastic cone should take care of the seal. I give a GA for it