Posted on 06/17/2010 3:47:13 AM PDT by 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
(Excerpt) Read more at floridaoilspilllaw.com ...
‘Has anyone ever heard of an oil gusher that couldnt be capped?”
How many gushers have we had in 5000 feet of water?
This from the guy who said yesterday, “it’s too early to judge this president, he’s only 18 months into the job”.
I am curious as to whether the Deep Horizon oil spill is related to this article from last fall:
The Times-Picayune |
September 02, 2009 |
Jen DeGregorio Posted on 09/03/2009 1:26:38 PM PDT by BBell
BP said Wednesday that it has drilled the world's deepest oil well in the Gulf of Mexico and found a giant pool of crude, a discovery that promises to make an indelible mark on the south Louisiana economy.
The Tiber Prospect is expected to rank among the largest petroleum discoveries in the United States, potentially producing half as much crude in a day as Alaska's famous North Slope oil field.
Louisiana energy circles were abuzz with news of the discovery Wednesday....
The logistics of moving the rock is also a big job. You would have to guide it all down on cable. Millions and Millions of tons. Boat after boat for years. Then patching it to stop the seepage for years. I guess it is doable.
Pick up a rock the size of a beach ball. It weighs about 200 pounds. Now think about a pile the size of the empire state building.
It's beyond even His powers. We need nothing less than the Teleprompter. Put TOTUS on a midget sub with a hammer and duct tape, and it should get the job done in no time.
The question is, can the WH spare TOTUS for the 48-72 hours this would take? There are other crises in the world that could blow at any time.
Based on his expertise level, yes. He is NOT an authority on geology, petroleum engineering, structural piping, or anything even remotely related to the subject.
If my sister in law, on the other hand, was to say so, then I'd believe HER, because she is a geophysicist, has spent 20 years doing 3D seismic in the petroleum exploration field, is intimately acquainted with the details of geological structures "downhole", and, at least by exposure, of the "plumbing" to get down to the oil, and get it out. And, I might add, has a really LOW opinion of BP.
His opinion on THIS topic is no better than yours, or mine, or any other reasonably educated person.
Maybe he can plug the hole with his head and massive ego.
Ask your sister-in-law about this one:
http://projectavalon.net/Richard_Hoagland_Coast_to_Coast_14_June_2010.mp3
Crazy or not?
My fear is that no one working to solve this problem knows what to do or it’s full extent.
To think that we all could have lost Blitzer during the first Iraq war... GHW Bush's fault!
Sorry, but I don’t do “soundtracks”. I’m pretty deaf and “aural” recordings are difficult. If you’ve got a link to a transcript, I’ll examine it.
I'll take that oilman any day over the piece of crap that we have now!
Dumping rock onto loose sediments wont do much good. Closing the well with a landslide apparently will require a nuke. Here is a video showing how the Russians do the trick. Those Russians can apparently get away with murder.
I'd think that would be obvious. Capture the oil and stop the leak. No matter how big the spill rate, human ingenuity can come up with a way to do that. Heck, build a geodesic dome, say about football field diameter. Sink it over the wellsite. Moor it to the sea floor. Have lots of pipe connections at the top and around the sides about half-way up. Produce gas from the top connections and oil from the "mid-way" ones. Get rich and solve the US energy crisis at one whack.
I’m sorry about your hearing - my husband is the same. He hasn’t heard birds singing since before a bomb went off too close to him and the hairs in his inner ear broke, a very tough thing for hearing aides to deal with. On the other hand, I get to yell at him all time with no repercussions!
Part of that sound track is listening to the voices, particularly one so it is preferable to a transcript. I will try to find one, though. It is about 10 minutes long and I doubt there is a transcript. I’ve got a lot to do today (life outside FR) so it will be later. If I get the time, I might transcribe it myself. Thanks.
I did some web searching on "Project Avalon", and found what is, I think, the website I think you are referring to. I'd have to say that I have to think it is another whacko "conspiracy theory" site. Anybody who claims METHYLENE CHLORIDE is coming out of the subsea floor has instant ZERO credibility with me. Methylene chloride is not at all a constituent of any oil deposit I've ever heard about. There are a VERY few chlorinated organics produced in nature, and they are present in VERY tiny amounts. Mostly methyl iodide, produced by bacteria and some seaweeds from the iodine in seawater.
Hydrogen sulfide...yes. That is a well-known (and dangerous) constitutent of oil and gas reservoirs (which is why every well being drilled has both air and mud monitors to tell if it is being released). Benzene also is present, as are many other polynuclear aromatics. But methylene chloride??? I don't think so.
Y’know when I’m looking for real expertise, the first place I go to is a guy who is not on site. The on-site facts might get in the way of a good panic.
Simmons is a well known doom-sayer and has been pushed out of the company he founded because of it. He is nothing more than a commentator on the oil industry and beyond that he has no expertise that I know of.
What they are doing down that hole is rocket science and Simmons does not have a clue as to what is happening.
Once filled up for $0.049 a gallon during a gas price war
back in 1965 and got a set of six drinking glasses to boot!
I found a web site that is Project Avalon’s new forum. I don’t have time to poke around there but I did see that the discussion concerned an interview with Dr. Bill so and so on the 16th of the month and that may be where you picked up the METHYLENE CHLORIDE reference.
The audio recording I listened to was a different broadcast on the 14th and was with Richard Hoagland. (I think it was recorded by a listener rather than the source.) I know his rep is mixed but he was no dummy. He never used meth chloride once in his statements.
Here’s a summary of the interview:
Hoagland said his sources for the information he has include people working for BP and people working for the U.S. government. There is a gas bubble (generic “gas” is what he said) that has formed around the well head that is 15 to 20 miles across. This was discovered by surface ships using GPS and depth finders. He then brings into his talk a reference to a geologist who is president of his own company and was the guy in charge of putting the oil fires out in Kuwait (he’s a Red Adair type). He said this man was willing to come on the radio show, under certain conditions, and talk about the problem with the host. This guy was one of the geologists hired to do a study on the formations in the gulf so he is very familiar with the with them. He advised people that it is not safe to drill deep wells there. He felt the formations could not stand the pressures of opening up a deep, deep well.
Hoagland proceeded to say that the well goes down 22,500 feet (4.5 miles) and the geologist believes the psi is 100,000 (gases). The mixture of gas and oil roared up the pipe and blew the casing away. He then talked about cavitation resulting from the continued rush of stuff up the pipe. He said the pipe goes through as many as 50-60 layers of geological materials - sandstone, gas pockets, different oil reservoirs, sand lenses (not sure if I have that right - wasn’t clear), etc. He said it’s like turning on a bubble machine.
Side comments back and forth - this is why they haven’t capped the well; drilling 2 relief wells is the wrong thing to do. Brief mention of abiotic oil. Comments to the effect that it is possible to tell whether this oil is “new” oil or “old” oil. A Chis Landau has actually written 2 papers stating that he believes abiotic oil could be produced in the gulf. Both papers have peer review.
Hoagland went on to discuss a worst case scenario that if the well is pressurizing the upper level strata and were to create cracks in the ocean floor at the top level which appears to be happening and they try to cap the well or the final rupture occurs, you could have the most horrendous gas explosion. Results would be toxic cloud drifting over land and a 400 to 600 mph tsunami which would primarily endanger Florida but wouldn’t be insignificant elsewhere along the coast where the land is higher.
Finally, he believes the mud (dog) log data from BP on the Deep Horizon well and all the wells in the gulf (he knows they are proprietary) need to be analyzed and a network of buoys set up in the gulf in conjunction with gps (military gps would be best of course) and echo sounding to get what in effect would be a cat scan of the gulf to see if this threat is as serious as is feared so people can be warned.
That’s the gist of it. What’s your reaction?
This might be of interest to you. I transcribed (loosely) a radio broadcast on the oil spill. If true, OH OH!
I did it for one of the resident FReeper experts who has hearing problems and couldn’t listen to the recording. He has promised to respond with his opinion and perhaps the opinion of his in law who is qualified to comment on the geology aspects.
Comment #59 - link:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2536374/posts?page=59#59
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