Taken shortly after the explosion. Note the mast is still intact, visible through the flames.
Posted on 05/01/2010 10:06:26 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Regular WUWT commenter Jimmy Haigh, a geologist by trade, sends along a PDF that is a compilation of on the scene photos taken right after the explosion and in the following two days. I’ve converted it to web format. These were taken by people on the scene during the rescue and firefighting operation. There’s also a narrative, done by a person “in the know”. You won’t find this at AP or Reuters.
Taken shortly after the explosion. Note the mast is still intact, visible through the flames.
(Excerpt) Read more at wattsupwiththat.com ...
fyi....some details of interest.
Ping.
Just amazing.
Transocean Horizon Spill... "Obama's Katrina"?
********************************EXCERPT*****************************
May 01, 2010
Panic time, folks. News stories about impending environmental disasters. A couple of senators calling for hearings. The media calling it "Obama's Katrina". Time for that rarest of things, perspective.
1. Chance that a US operated Gulf of Mexico rig sinks and spills? A. 0.025% or 1 in 4000.
2. How much oil will this spill (worst case scenario)? A. 150,000 barrels.
3. How much is it leaking now? A. 5,000 barrels per day, although it sounds so much bigger when you multiply by 42 and put it into gallons.
4. How much natural oil seepage is there in the Gulf of Mexico? A. 5,000 barrels per day, although it is widely distributed and not point sourced.
5. Where will this rank? A. 37th in the world's top 71 man-made oil spills.
6. What happened to the 121,000 barrels spilled by the Mega Borg (the second largest spill in the GOM)? A. They burned it. 1800 barrels recovered, 270 barrels left after burning, so, in essence, via burning and wind and wave action biodegradation, 121,000 barrels turned into a little over 2000 barrels. The Prudhoe Bay incident was magnified because it had little wind or wave action... it was a closed system.
7. How does this compare to, say, wildfires? A. Wildfires fully devastate the areas they cover, and typically take 5-30 years to fully recover from a ground fire and up to 150 years to recover from a crown fire. Full recovery from an oil spill is typically a year or less.
8. OK, but how about the carbon footprint between them? A. In fully protected fire areas (a small amount of total forest), there are typically 10,000 to 30,000 forest fires per year world wide. These consume 16,000,000 hectares per year, and release 1.6 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year (mind you, this is just a small subset of fires, the subset we are most able to fight and protect). This spill will release, at most a little over 52,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. That is, 0.0033% of fully protected fightable wildfires.
9. But, but... the poor birds? A. Fires fully incinerate the animals they touch. Oily animals make fine, heart-rending posters and cover shots for Time.
So now lets look at the number of these spills...
Now, let's look at the charts. First, how will this rank in terms of Gulf of Mexico spills?
WOW...pretty amazing photos of the oil rig as it burns....nice angles let you see much better than any I’ve seen yet....thanks..
Let's get the FReepathon over!
Go to the FReepathon thread and give it a bump if you've already donated.
OR
Adopt a Liberal if you'd like to do something more.
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Noelene says:
Mark Levin had a caller on tonight who was actually on the oil rig when it exploded and is now leaking 5,000 barrels day into the Gulf of Mexico. His primary intent for calling was to explain that this was in fact NOT an act of terrorism. He also provided some great insight into how the explosion actually happened.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/05/01/mark_levin_caller_oil_rig_explosion_was_not_terrorism.html
Thank you for the perspective.
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Robert says:
I don’t believe in conspiracies in this manner.
The Piper Alpha disaster for example was caused by 2 workpermits that got seperated. They removed the safety valve of Condensate pump A for maintenance, the job was not finished when the night shift started and the permit stating that the job was not completed and that pump A was not to be switched on got lost somehow.
There was however a seccond permit stating that the overhaul of pump A had not yet started. Then suddenly Condensate pump B stopped, since a permit was found that stated that work on pump A had not yet started they switched on pump A to continue operations thinking that all was still in working order and safe to operate. Nobody noticed the missing safety valve.
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rbateman says:
None of the failsafes engaged, most likely indicating the control line(s)/remotes to the sea floor were severed.
At that point, the Deadman should have engaged. Suggests explosion travelling down.
Obama’s first action was to deplay swat teams to adjacent rigs.
Add in H.S. and you have an implied threat from undisclosed sources. Could also be that the Admin. is doing something, even if it’s wrong.
No interviews of drilling crew says the lid is on tight.
So, we do not know what transpired out there.
Meantime, I hope somebody comes up with something ingenious to stem the flow, and quickly.
I dunno. But with no Kathleen Blanco and Ray Nagin to shake a stick at, how will Zero's handling of the crisis
compare to that of GWB?
From the comments and relative to the post at #13.
Pat Moffitt says:
To rbateman
I’m sure they deployed SWOT teams not SWAT (although I have seen many media centers call it SWAT). The agencies deploying make SWOT more likely-Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, Threats. Its what one would expect after a such an accident.
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CRS, Dr.P.H. says:
Mike Odin says:
May 1, 2010 at 6:27 pm
1–BP successfully fought
to block the inclusion on all its USA oil rigs of a device called an acoustic switch—commonly COMMONLY used in other oil-producing nations—that sends impulses through the water that can trigger an underwater valve to shut down the well in the event of a blowback. BP found the costs of these units, about $500,000, excessive.
None of the experts posting on this site seems remotely interested in mentioning that switch.
———–
REPLY: I am an expert in the oil and gas industry, working on produced water disposal and production of xanthan gum drilling muds using biotechnology.
I posted this at 11:04 am today, this article contains a detailed discussion of the acoustic switch you mentioned:
Considering that the blow-out prevention (BOP) valve is resisting all attempts at closure (remote vehicles are trying very hard to actuate the mechanism on-hand), it appears that something may have damaged this control system, rendering the existence of the acoustic switch moot. We won’t know until they make more progress.
I’m encouraged by the “box” design that BP is working on, this might capture the oil and turn off the ecological spill. The remainder of their work on this will take months.
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foobius says:
I listened to the Levin recording. Assuming it is accurate:
They had finished cementing. They closed the annular preventer (basically a big bag that seals around a drill pipe if there is one, allowing rotation and insertion/removal of pipe while closed, or plugs off the hole if there is no pipe). They pressure tested the BOPs. The BOPs passed.
They were preparing to detach the riser from the SSA and move on after running a temporary cement plug. They displaced the drilling fluid in the riser with sea water (the drilling fluid must be recovered). They opened the annular preventer. The well kicked and pushed upward. Fluid began coming out of the riser. They tried closing the BOPs but couldn’t. Fluid flow increased until the stream was hitting the top of the mast. Finally, no drilling fluid remained in the hole and the well was freely flowing. Gas flowed over the rig and then detonated.
So, why? Likely:
The down hole pressure is opposed by the pressure of the drilling fluid column, accumulating all the way from surface. Heavier drilling fluid (greater density) in the hole increases the pressure gradient from surface to bottom. They displaced the fluid from the riser, which would have changed the pressure gradient over 5000 ft, reducing the final pressure at the bottom of the hole and allowing formation pressure to exceed the drilling fluid pressure, allowing formation fluid influx (which also can dilute the drilling fluid and further reduce weight) and causing the kick. The normal procedure to kill a kick is to pump high-weight kill mud into the hole at the location of the kick influx, usually at the bottom. If they didn’t have any pipe in the hole, that wouldn’t have been possible. They could have slipped pipe in past the closed annular preventer, as is intended by its design, and eventually killed the kick while using the BOP choke system to control pressure. If the annular wouldn’t close nor the rams, there was no hope.
If the calculated required mud weight was wrong, the displacement of the riser fluid could have lowered the pressure enough to allow the kick. The in-hole mud weight used while cementing should have been higher than drilling mud which needs to be close to formation pressure to optimize drilling rates. The formation could have opened to a higher pressure area due to changes in pressure differential. The cementing job could have used the wrong mud weight or otherwise diluted the drillng fluid.
The only likely solution now is a relief well that will drill in to the old well at the pressure zone and pump in high-weight mud to kill the flow. The riser cannot be “crimped” to stop the flow since it is thin-walled, light tubing only designed to conduct fluid from sea floor to surface and not to carry any great pressure.
Kicks occur all over the world every day and are usually controlled with little fuss, using standard, well-understood procedures. I would have thought that there would have been a pressure rise below the BOPs which should have been noted.
Acoustic triggers would not have helped. They operate the same BOPs as the regular control system. If the normal BOP controls didn’t work at the start and the ROVs can’t control the BOPs, nothing else would help. To suggest otherwise is to insist that lack of warning stickers CAUSES people to injure themselves on ladders.
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Jim B says:
From a long time lurker (and fellow petroleum geologist) -Thanks all for a great discussion of the Deepwater Horizon incident. I don’t believe anyone has posted the Join Command Web Site:
http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/site/2931/
This is the official communication site for the Coast Guard, Transocean, BP, MMS and all the others. It’s a great source for what the press hears, but may not always pass on to us.
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