Posted on 04/26/2010 10:39:53 AM PDT by thackney
BP, as lease operator of Mississippi Canyon Block 252 (MC252), continues to forge ahead with a comprehensive oil well intervention and spill response plan following the April 22 sinking of the Transocean Deepwater Horizon drilling rig 130 miles southeast of New Orleans.
"We are attacking this spill on two fronts -- at the wellhead and on the surface offshore," said BP Group Chief Executive Tony Hayward, who has travelled to Texas and Louisiana this week to meet with response personnel. "The team on the ground and those at sea have the Group's full resources behind them."
BP continues to assist Transocean's work below the surface on the subsea equipment, using remotely operated vehicles to monitor the Macondo/MC252 exploration well, and is planning and mobilizing to activate the blow-out preventer.
BP is preparing to drill relief wells to permanently secure the well. The drilling rig Development Driller III is moving into position to drill a second well to intercept the Macondo well and inject a specialized heavy fluid to securely prevent flow of oil or gas and allow work to be carried out to permanently seal the well.
As of Saturday, April 24, the oil spill response team had recovered more than 1,000 barrels of an oil-water mix of which the vast majority is water. The material has been collected by skimming vessels and vessels towing containment boom. Dispersants have also been applied to the spill. Equipment available for the effort includes:
•100,000 gallons of dispersant are ready to be deployed, which is a third of the world’s dispersant commodity; BP is in contact with manufacturers to procure additional supply as necessary. •32 spill response vessels (skimmers, tugs, barges, recovery vessels). •5 aircraft (helicopters and fixed wing including a large payload capacity C-130 (Hercules) for dispersant deployment). In Houma, La. where the field operations response is being coordinated, almost 500 personnel on- and offshore have already been deployed to coordinate the oil spill response. BP’s team of operational and technical experts are working in coordination with several agencies, organizations and companies including United States Coast Guard, Minerals Management Service, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US Fish & Wildlife Service, Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries, and Marine Spill Response Corporation. More teams have been mobilized in Houston and New Orleans to support the effort.
According to Steve Benz, President and CEO of the Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC), "At BP's request we are mounting the single, largest response effort in MSRC's 20-year history. The many years of working together with BP on drills and exercises has proved invaluable to us as we move forward on this response effort."
"Given the current conditions and the massive size of our response, we are confident in our ability to tackle this spill offshore," Hayward added.
Along with the response teams in action, additional resources, both people and equipment, continue to arrive for staging throughout the Gulf states in preparation for deployment should they be needed.
Remember in the movie “Armageddon” when the president, cabinet and the joint chiefs needed to find the world’s best driller, and they found Bruce Willis and his gang?
You can damn well bet a similar hunt has been going on among BP’s world resources. The best remote submersible guys, machinists and welders are now being assembled, if they are not already on sight.
I’d love to meet those guys. Guys who can fix ANYTHING, who can invent solutions and fabricate new tools on the spot.
An amazing crew, I’m sure. Maybe there will be a documentary someday.
Note to self: read before hitting “post.” SITE not sight.
They'll need to be. This thing is really deep, isn't it?
I suspect before the final fix is completed, duct tape will be involved.
And lots of underwater epoxy.
Just 5,000 feet.....so it’s all up to the robot guys.
But welders and machinists will fabricate some vital new gadget for the robot to install.
can’t stop it before the tar washes ashore at Panama City just in time for Spring Break now...how else you gonna convince ‘em not to drill for their own oil?
This accident will thwart any momentum for increased offshore drilling. It will be thrown in the face of any new proposals by an army of environmental activists.
Public opinion was just beginning to come around on the need for domestic drilling. Now the accident images are fresh and will be repeated as needed by media and politicians.
A mile down, high pressure, massive flow, oil, Hmmm,....nope, nothing like anything I have done underwater. I’ve done 180 foot deep penetrating wreck dives on leaking ships but nothing like capping a high pressure oil pipe using submersibles.
No, it will only support those that were already against it.
Less than 30 gpm is a massive flow?
3 garden hoses equals massive flow?
Don't let environmentalists define your terms.
I hardly think a well pipe flows 30 gallons per minute. They wouldn’t even drill for that.
The spill is 1,000 BPD
42,000 Gal/Day
1,750 Gal/hr
29.2 GPM
That does not mean it is the full potential of the well, just what is flowing in the current condition. Maybe the BOP nearly closed, just not completely.
Note the leakage rate stated by the Coast Guard:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2500795/posts
Even if it is 30 gpm, ever been under water near that much oil? I have. It makes for extremely bad conditions. It doesn’t clear out.
Most Crude oil, including this one, is lighter than water be won’t mix with water so there is no suspension.
The oil is rising to the surface. It is not like stirring up the bottom sediments that just seem to hang forever.
Indeed.......... impressive. I remember watching the oil fire crews during the aftermath of Desert Storm work........ hell on earth was witnessed.
Good luck to all those tasked in this effort.
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