Blowout preventer
Two sets of blowout preventers for a well being drilled in Northern Italy
Posted on 05/01/2010 6:32:16 PM PDT by dickmc
Most of the posted and published articles regarding the Gulf oil spill are generic, non-technical, and without much real meat. Thus, I spent some time looking around to find some more satisfying and technical information.
Here is an initial New York Times article which explains some of the issues. And, here is a Washington Post graphic that better details the current situation. BTW, a blowout preventer (BOP) is a device full of hydraulic rams and/or valves that sets on top of the well to seal uncontrolled leaks. To some degree it is at least conceptually possible to operate the gulf floor BOP by a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV)
The ‘official’ site for the incident is at http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/site/2931/. It has a number of photos, maps, and videos. It also has a fairly good News and Info section. However, much of the photos and videos are elsewhere on that site and are managed by an evil combination of YahooFlickr and Adobe Flash which makes most of the navigation and detailed investigation difficult. The best strategy is to get to the site’s Flickr Galleries here and here. Then, click on the item of interest including videos (black images) or photos or illustrations.
Several things are worth noting . . . .
Based on the initial Coast Guard video the accident was very serious, large, and hot. It is lucky more people were not killed!
Here is the BOP for the drilling rig. The comments under the photo are somewhat interesting.
The rig did not sink on top of the well head. Thus, access to the BOP is relatively unenclumbered.
An ROV was able to reach the BOP and did try to manually activate it. It is worth looking at this photo to read the viewer comments which are interesting and some of which appear to be expert. However, the bottom line is either that the ROV did not properly actuate the BOP or the BOP did not work. A video of the ROV attempting to operate the BOP is also included at the site.
The collapsed “drill pipe” appears to be discharging oil from two locations along its length.
.
This article from the Kansas City Star cites a higher number of undersea BOP failures than I would have expected. Here is the '83 failures' study and here is the related search on the Minerals Management Service federal government site to other blow out preventer studies. It appears that the University of Louisiana is doing a lot of pretty good work on this area!
Here is BP's favorable response to some proposed BOP rule modifications.
.
One of the more farfetched conspiracy theories here suggests that the Deepwater Horizon was torpedoed by a North Korean sub!
.
Please feel free to contribute and add info and links. Also if someone thinks that the non-environmental portions of this are worth a Ping List, could you please create one.
Ping for later
Ping for later study. Thanks for posting this.
Thank you.
BTTT,
Does anybody have any further info on this, like some more sonar images from the sea floor or the rig...
Thanks for all the useful information and links ...
Two sets of blowout preventers for a well being drilled in Northern Italy
Is it attached to the Blow Out Preventer?
Not sure where the attachment is located.
ping for when my brain is clearer (that may be a few months)
bump
Mark Lievn has interviewed somebody who was on the rig when it blew. It is a darned good interview too.
Worth careful reading. It is a very imformative and well written article.
No way are there "currents" in the Gulf that strong. What you are more likely seeing is the effects of the "prop wash" from the positioning propellor/thrusters of the ROV.
.... agreed.
Yeah, I was thinking that as well.
Some really good, informative comments on the photo here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/uscgd8/4551846015/
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.