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Gulf Oil Spill

06/14/2010 10:52 PM

Hello everyone, I have been actively following the oil spill in the gulf and I am attempting to devise a solution for the spill. However to do this correctly I need to find the specs and drawings for the lower marine riser package that was used for the well. Does anyone know where I could possibly find them or if the are even available? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

-Nick

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Anonymous Poster
#1

Re: Gulf Oil Spill

06/14/2010 11:06 PM

Something like this:?

BOP Drawing

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#3
In reply to #1

Re: Gulf Oil Spill

06/14/2010 11:31 PM

That helps a lot, thank you!

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#2

Re: Gulf Oil Spill

06/14/2010 11:09 PM

I made some comment about your intelligence here, but I erased it and substituted this:

No, never mind. For $10.00USD I'll send you the whole package.

The early riser gets there the day before you order it.................

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#4

Re: Gulf Oil Spill

06/15/2010 1:43 AM

This is the first post about the oil spill.

BP is manyfacturing heavy duty equipment and sailing in the big guns. It takes time but they still can spend some money. Only complicated and high tech solutions are wellcome, they cannot have PR face loss?

If and when you consider this as an excercise it will give you a lot of designing satisfaction. I include 2 answers that they have in their word processors as reply:

(some others have been posted already)

First Reply: 42 days after publication

Xxxx Xxx Xxxxxxxxx,

We appreciate you submitting your Alternative Response Technology (ART) proposal to the Horizon Support Team. This note is to inform you that we do have your information on record and will be processing it as soon as possible. You will be informed of the disposition of your recommendation following technical review.

Thank you!
Horizon Support Team

=====================================================================================

Second Reply: 5 days later/ 30 days after publication

Dear ,
Thank you so much for taking the time to think about and submit your proposed solution regarding the Horizon incident. Your submission has been reviewed for its technical merits. A similar approach has already been considered or planned for possible implementation. All of us on the Horizon Support Team appreciate your thoughts and efforts.

Sincerely yours,
Horizon Support Team

I am waiting for the first member to start the club of frustrated engineers, count me in and welcome too.

Regards

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#5
In reply to #4

Re: Gulf Oil Spill

06/15/2010 2:58 AM

Whoo-ee; is that ever promising. As I have said elsewhere, the BP PR is sorely lacking. I would prefer to think that they doing the best they can under the gun, but this is becoming increasingly difficult. No one in that organization (nor anyone else) has provided details of pipe sizes, BOP construction, pressure/flow conditions, piping materials, or any other sensible information. No calculations, either.

For instance, there has been no Darcy-Weisbach or Colebrook analysis of flow conditions from the oil reservoir up through the pipe to the well head, to say nothing of the nonexistent pipe to the ocean surface. Of course, lawyers and publicists (and government honchos) would know nothing about this, but good grief, are there no engineers involved? There probably are, but why are they so invisible?

Hell, we don't even know whether the pipe size is 21" (casing?) versus 7" (actual internal pipe?). By now, this information should have been shouted to the world in the hope of bringing inside and outside minds to bear on solving this huge problem.

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Anonymous Poster
#6
In reply to #5

Re: Gulf Oil Spill

06/15/2010 9:55 AM
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#7
In reply to #6

Re: Gulf Oil Spill

06/15/2010 11:28 PM

GA just more information to set straight.

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#8
In reply to #6

Re: Gulf Oil Spill

06/16/2010 12:21 AM

Better late than never?

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#17
In reply to #6

Re: Gulf Oil Spill

06/20/2010 12:53 AM

This is the first time I have seen this (after about 45 days of spill), despite questions that have been repeatedly raised. This additional information is valuable, but what are the diameters of what looks like a central pipe surrounded by regions of 14" and 16" diameter?

Still no pressure vs. flow analysis that I have found so far, though.

(I should have been clearer that I was referring to the lack of info on CR4 threads, not in the whole wide world. But you seem to be the first to mention good outside sources. Definite GA.)

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#9

Re: Gulf Oil Spill

06/16/2010 3:54 AM

You might want to look at this assessment of the situation before getting up your hopes of a simple solution.

"First of all...set aside all your thoughts of plugging the well and stopping it from blowing out oil using any method from the top down. Plugs, big valves to just shut it off, pinching the pipe closed, installing a new bop or lmrp, shooting any epoxy in it, top kills with mud etc etc etc....forget that, it won't be happening..it's done and over. In fact actually opening up the well at the subsea source and allowing it to gush more is not only exactly what has happened, it was probably necessary, or so they think anyway."

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#10
In reply to #9

Re: Gulf Oil Spill

06/16/2010 4:32 AM

shocking

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#11

Re: Gulf Oil Spill

06/16/2010 7:53 AM

Correction please, this is not a spill it is a continuous flow. A spill is from a finite container as in spill your coffee or your soda or even the Exxon Valdez.

We should offer as many solutions as possible as BP is not being effective in stopping this major catastrophe.

Thanks for trying.

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Anonymous Poster
#12

Re: Gulf Oil Spill

06/16/2010 1:20 PM

I think the only practical (if there be such in this sort of catastrophe) solution is to "pinch" it off from an angle hoping that the pressure doesn't seek the shaft of earth used to pinch it off, in which case you will now have two exit holes instead of one.

The other possibly practical solution is to use this angled entry to inject something to coagulate/solidify the oil, thus eventually plugging the hole. But you still have the problem of the oil now escaping via the angled entry hole(s).

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#13

Re: Gulf Oil Spill

06/16/2010 1:57 PM

I received basically the same response, although mine was only a 15 day wait for reply. I had submitted a design with pdf captures that were sent to BP. Who knows when or if anyone's ideas will bne considered. I maintain that BP sole idea at work here is to keep the well flowing and capture as much as possible until the relief well is finished. They gave a August completion date, but given how far behind schedule they were drilling the initial well, that may stretch into September or October. As long as the well spews oil they can get it to market. At least it seems this way to the casual observer. I envisioned that it should be no more difficult than when crews were snuffing out wells in Kuwait after the Gulf war. Clamp a riser to the well head, guided by ROV with a big valve or valves set wide open, then after the riser clamp is secured, manually ( Use the ROV ) close the valve.

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#14

Re: Gulf Oil Spill

06/16/2010 2:54 PM

I just read the assesment by Randall. It is worse than imagined. Worst case scenario. Thanks.

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#15

Re: Gulf Oil Spill

06/16/2010 3:45 PM

I read that assessment and I must say that I absolutely believe that something like that is going to happen. The pipe that is holding up the BOP is not going to hold on forever, and we really don't know what shape the ground under the BOP is like. Here is what I think will happen. BP will try various other solutions to stop the flow of oil, these will not work. The well and its linings will continue to deteriorate until they give way. At this point we will have nothing more that a hole in the ground gushing oil with no way to control it. With out a liner, the down hole will continue to erode and get larger spewing more and more oil. Right when we think it can't get any worse, hurricane season will come and spread this oil to every part of the oceans and seas and completely destroy the ecosystems there. Temperatures will be changed, the atmosphere will change, among other things. Ultimately I think that our lust for oil will lead to the demise of the human race. Because we all know that those relief wells are not going to work right if they work at all.

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#16

Re: Gulf Oil Spill

06/16/2010 3:54 PM

The real question now is "can they get them drilled in time?" They will have to get to a depth below the "disc" that has failed, and get the concrete pumped in before all hell breaks loose. the WH administration has further complicated things by dragging their feet by not calling for "ALL HANDS ON DECK" from every conceivable source. This is far worse than any of us realized. Some of us were under the impression that BP just wanted to keep oil flowing into their pockets, but in light of the assesment findings, maybe that was an ill conceived thought on my part. They better speed up the pace on getting the Dutch companies in the gulf to pick up what's on the surface and stop applying the chemical diffuser to the flow. Let's start treating this as worst case scenario from here forward. Politicians step aside please!

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