Wolf Blitzer: “Billion potential barrels of oil” under BP well; “Could really explode” expert says

Florida Oil Spill AW ^ | June 17, 2010 | jackie

[jackietree]

CNN’s first mention of concerns about the structural integrity of BP’s blown-out well occurred on the June 16 edition of the Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, during an interview with a member of the government’s Flow Rate Technical Group, Professor Steven Wereley.

Blitzer described a conversation he had with an expert who said, “They’re still really concerned about the structural base of this whole operation.” “This thing could really explode,” added Blitzer, “And they’re sitting, what, on — on a billion potential barrels of oil.”

Wereley responded, “I’ve heard concerns about the structural integrity of the well.” More precisely, the structural concerns were if “the casing of the well is — is faulty at some point.”

SNIP

[ichabod1]

or even a moron whose willing to TALK to oilmen.

[EVO X]

I understand, but there is no shortage of rock to bury thisthing if they had to bury several acres under 20-100 ft of rock.

The oil would continue to flow out of the damaged well cassing and eventually find its way to the surface. They need to stop the flow below the damaged section.

[PA-RIVER]

It would send the rock flying. Its coming out at 7000 psi.

[Dem Guard]

Not as much as is leaking now, and they could still drill the alternative wells as they are doing now.

[b4its2late]

Not with a 6 month moratorium on no new drills.

[Condor51]

*** 120,000 barrels/day * 365 days/year * 25 years = 1.095 billion barrels. ***

You forgot to factor in Leap Years.

[Dem Guard]

If they can keep the cap they have on it now it wouldn’t be a problem for big rock bags, large cement blocks and ultimately deep gravel buried over it.

[nikos1121]

Has anyone ever heard of an oil gusher that couldnt be capped?

I think something isamiss hear.

Clearly they r keeping the truth from us.

I suspect the pressures are toogreat tocapthe well and the leak is coming further down.

There’s 18,000 ft of drill pipe . 5000 in water, the rest bedrock. The leak could be anywhere.

Think about it. BP agrees to settle when they dont have too. They re thinking striking a deal now will put a cap on their losses.

We’re being lied too.

[justa-hairyape]

Thought I read that they are working with 1,000 feet of loose silt, mud, sand and clay. Then you get to the thousands of feet of hard salts (basalt) and eventually limestone. If you plug the end of the well head right now, all the oil and methane gas will leak out at the main break point. That break point is uncontrolled. High pressure gas could get up into the 1,000 feet of loose sediment. That sediment could eventually bulge and begin leaking oil and methane. The situation right now is fairly controlled and will remain that way until and if the main well head opens up more due to small particulates in the oil. BP has a lot more oil processing capability on the way. Should be able to collect well over 50,000 bpd in total.

[PA-RIVER]

Years from now these men will be able to speak without fear recrimination. I suspect they will tell us he was the dumbest a-hole they ever had to deal with.

[rintense]

I still believe there’s more going on on the ocean floor and below than what we know or are being told. BP is the natural fall guy for all this, and they should take responsibility. But a fundamental geological shift needs to be researched and considered in all this. BP may have just been the victim of it.

[PA-RIVER]

I think they could pile rock on that for two years, day and night, and it would still leak. It would seep around every crevice. It would take years of cement and rock being piled on it to stop it. You would literally have to move a mountain into the ocean. But don't worry, we have the “One” on the job, the man who would lower the sea levels.

[Dem Guard]

What you describe makes one wonder how they every found it stable enough to drill in the first place. This is a stinking pipe in the ground, not a volcano. It could be
buried given enough rock. Particularly in nearly two months time. imho

[driftdiver]

“Why the heck don’t they just put a metal cone cover over this well head and just weigh it down”

Because the oil would come up through the compromised seafloor.

[wolfcreek]

Do you discount his assertion that the casing could be damaged below the surface (of the seafloor) and could eventually erode the rock/soil that surrounds it?

[rbg81]

In the 60s, there was a sci-fi fick called “Crack in the World”. It was about an attempt to tap magma in the Earth’s core with a nuke. Except the nuke ended up causing a crack in the Earth’s crust that started to spread. It threatened to litteral cut the world in too. Scientists tried to stop the crack with a 2nd nuke, but it just caused it to reverse course. At the end of the film, the now oval shaped crack ended up resulting in the birth of another moon from magma within the Earth’s core.

With Obama “in charge”, look for a similar type disaster here.

[Dem Guard]

We could live with a small leak versus what we have now.
Plus they still are working on the relief wells which should reach their targets by next month.

[DTogo]

Why not lower an over-sized pipe/tube (~10 feet wide x 5000ft. long) over the wellhead and connect it to a large flat kevlar reinforced collection bag on the surface that tankers could tap into?

Deepwater Horizon II: a floating "lilly pad" (colostomy bag?) until a more permanent solution is found.

[Vaquero]

Wow, it’s just too damned bad we don’t have an oilman in the Whitehouse.

Bush/Cheney (with support from G.H.W. Bush) would have plugged it by now.

you need roughnecks to work on oil wells....

...not pantywaists

[PA-RIVER]

Two question for reporters who aren’t licking Obamas Azz:

1. Has Obama returned the 70,000 in campaign funds from BP, before they got the permit for this well?

2. Has Rahm Emanual paid BP for the apartment he received, rent free, before they got the permit for this well?