Here ya go. Now hush up and read.
LOL
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.
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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.
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One of the more farfetched conspiracy theories here suggests that the Deepwater Horizon was torpedoed by a North Korean sub!
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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.
Thank you.
Where my pie at?
The Gulf oil rig explosion – on the scene photosPosted on May 1, 2010 by Anthony Watts
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/05/01/the-gulf-oil-rig-explosion-on-the-scene-photos/#more-19096
Here ya go. Now hush up and read.
LOL
This piece also deals with the torpedo accusation as well as other possibilities and the problems involved
http://www.theusmat.com/
This was not an accident. I’m sure zero is happy with the outcome.
Outstanding job of putting this together; this is exactly what I was looking for and it’s of great help in understanding all of this.
Many, many thanks!
BC
Thanks for posting this great thread. With Freepers like you and Thackney posting energy related topics, we can be assured that we will be well informed.
As someone who believes that there are government entities who have both an ideological and financial interest in seeing energy costs skyrocket, I am withholding judgement at this time as to the cause.
I understand these types of fires (well, maybe not THIS big) are more common than one might think, but this is too convenient for me to rule it out of hand. I will keep an open mind.
You are a credit to FR. Your post is exactly what is best about this forum. Thanks for that work. I am now setting into reading the material.
Wow. In looking at the video of the submersible trying to close the valve, it looks the current is REALLY strong, the way the particulates fly by.
The NK sub sounds crazy but was it two weeks ago that a SK navy ship was blown up and sunk? Some think it was a mine or torpedo.
The drilling rig ship was built in SK by Hyundai and they may have still owned it and leased it to TransOcean.
It takes quite a while for gas to rise five thousand feet in drilling mud. There are many early indications that gas is entering the casing and remedies for the situation before a disaster occurs. A "kick" is a pending blowout that is controlled before it becomes serious. A blowout is the result of multiple problems including human error and equipment failure.
If the gas came to the sea floor then to the surface from a leak outside of the surface casing the blowout preventers would not help. However, gas coming this way would start five thousand feet below the rig and probably would come to the surface somewhere other than under the rig because of currents.
So far all is speculation so I guess torpedoes and space aliens have to be included for consideration.
I suspect Earth First, Greenpeace or other such organizations had a hand in this event and am awaiting the results of a serious investigation.
Great Post,,,
IMHO : I think the BOP failed because it was fouled by
the packer that was being used near the BOP...
Great job! Thank you.
Excellent! This is a post that should be added to in order educate those that may not be familiar with the oil and gas industry as many posts on threads dealing with the deep horizon have a ton of misinformation in them!
Two quick thoughts:
If the well is venting from the drill pipe, the float valve (provided there is one in the drill string) has failed.
If the well is venting oil from the riser, the BOP either did not actuate or the pipe is bent in the BOP and will not permit the rams to close effectively.
Lifting the pipe in the wellbore may permit the pipe rams to be closed, but would be an engineering marvel to accomplish.
While that would not address the problem of oil venting from the drill pipe, setting slips with an ROV to hold the drill pipe in place and cutting the pipe might permit better control of the outflow by tapping into the drill string (as one possibility), or if the blind rams can be actuated, cutting the pipe and dropping it into the wellbore would permit the blind rams to function if they are not damaged.
The riser would have to be stripped away first to permit this.
There is no simple fix to control the well—that would be as ‘easy’ as it gets at this point.
ping
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