Someone speculated the crust would crack, but they don't realize that all we are drilling on offshore wells is the layers of sediment on top of the volcanic (albeit undersea volcanoes) rock that makes up the ocean crust. IOW, the crust isn't going to crack--not from this, anyway, nor will the ocean floor collapse because all that oil blew out.
The reservoir is supported by grains of rock, the oil is being forced from the spaces in between the grains by the pressure of the gas in the reservoir, some of which is dissolved in the oil.
When the oil is gone, the rock will remain, and while there may be some slight subsidence over time, it will be minor.
I questioned the 50,000 bbl figure because the record wells in the world (cited on the API website, iirc) were only about 45,000 BOPD. That would make this one very good property from a production standpoint, despite the need to control the well. It also heralds fine possibilities for development of the field.
It is entirely possible that the flow rates from the well have been incresing as the defective cement plug in the wellbore erodes over time, effectively opening the choke downhole that that channelized plug had provided.
Apparently BP is going to attempt to imcrease their recovery operations to handle 20,000 BOPd, so we'll see how that affects tha amount escaping the recovery efforts.
Then answer me this...
Why the hell wasn’t the relief well about a week behind the original well?
It seems a lot of time has been lost that could have easily prevented, or at least sharply reduced the flow of hundreds of thousands of barrels into the Gulf.
Good explanation based on facts but many here cannot accept fact. Also its getting and the bats are out in force..as I have said this place late at night is better than than the National Enquirer..cant resist checking it out :)
I heard that this is the 7th most productive find in the gulf.