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Growing oil well cavity could collapse as oil is squeezed out of the leak. (Vanity)
IMHO

Posted on 06/03/2010 2:34:57 PM PDT by 7thOF7th

With each gallon of oil that leaks out of the hole in the Gulf, a vacuous cavity is forming and no longer providing structural support to the subterranean oil deposit. It is this very pressure that pushes the oil out of the hole. Under normal operating conditions sea water or heavy mud is used to replace the volume of oil extracted. If nothing is filling the space of the leaking oil, a catastrophe of immense and long lasting impact could occur. If the ceiling of the subterranean cavern collapses, it will release the entire oil deposit into the Gulf of Mexico. This would be biblical in size and scope of disasters as over a billion gallons of crude oil and gas are released all at once. IMHO


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: hypothesis; theory; whoknows
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To: Eyes Unclouded

“I’m not a geologist so my physics may be off.”

Hit F6 then enter.


41 posted on 06/03/2010 3:08:38 PM PDT by IrishPennant (If you can accept losing, you can't win. ~ Vince Lombardi)
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To: TexasCajun
I would bet the reservoir is at least 10,000’ below the sea surface?

It's 18,000 feet below the sea surface, 13,000 feet below the sea bed.

42 posted on 06/03/2010 3:08:45 PM PDT by Ole Okie
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To: Eyes Unclouded

“I’m not a geologist so my physics may be off.”

Hit F6 then enter.


43 posted on 06/03/2010 3:11:56 PM PDT by IrishPennant (If you can accept losing, you can't win. ~ Vince Lombardi)
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To: Ole Okie

I bet it will fill up with magma and lava will start flowing out of the well and then all the sea animals will evolve into the kind that live around those hot sea vents and then we will have those shrimp to eat.


44 posted on 06/03/2010 3:15:19 PM PDT by Gadsden1st
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To: 7thOF7th

The oil is found within the pore space of a highly porous and permeable sandstone. The reservoir likely has a strong water drive in that for every molecule of oil that leaves the reservoir, it is replaced by a molecule of salt water from below the oil/water contact. There has been subsidence around some oil fields (up to 20’ in field south of Houston,) but a subterranean cavern - no chance.


45 posted on 06/03/2010 3:16:03 PM PDT by crusty old prospector
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To: Ole Okie

“It’s 18,000 feet below the sea surface, 13,000 feet below the sea bed.”

In rods, furlongs, leagues, cubits, hands, light years?

At 5,000 ft. below the surface (seabed floow), the pressure is 2300 psi.

Any idea how powerful that is?

I think we should get us a movie director, with his submarines and fiber optics, and go down there and wrestle with 2,300 psi, jagged metal, and just “plug that damn well.”

It will be even better if we have the lawyers help the movie director.


46 posted on 06/03/2010 3:19:30 PM PDT by truth_seeker
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To: ConservaTexan
And to think I was worried the cream filling would start leaking out.

That's a big Twinkie...


Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

47 posted on 06/03/2010 3:22:53 PM PDT by The Comedian (Evil can only succeed if good men don't point at it and laugh.)
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To: 7thOF7th

You might be thinking of the Yellowstone Caldera configuration. Oil deposits are not comparable to calderas.

http://www.armageddononline.org/yellowstone_caldera.php


48 posted on 06/03/2010 3:35:49 PM PDT by sodpoodle (Despair - Man's surrender. Laughter - God's redemption)
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To: 7thOF7th

Wrong Wrong Wrong.

charlie the Geologist


49 posted on 06/03/2010 3:41:05 PM PDT by cpdiii (Deckhand, Roughneck, Geologist, Pilot, Pharmacist: THE CONSTITUTION IS WORTH DYING FOR.)
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To: HoustonCurmudgeon

“expert”

[snicker]


50 posted on 06/03/2010 3:48:09 PM PDT by stevie_d_64 (I'm jus' sayin')
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To: 7thOF7th
The Lake Peigneur incident was entirely different if that is what you had in mind:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNo-gEPWVnM
51 posted on 06/03/2010 3:48:27 PM PDT by Deaf Smith (When a Texan takes his chances, you know chances will be taken that's for sure.)
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To: 7thOF7th

Oil isn’t sitting around in a big pool, just waiting for us to run a giant straw through a hole and suck it up. It’s inside rocks. It has to be forcibly removed.


52 posted on 06/03/2010 3:52:57 PM PDT by Xenalyte (Yes, Chef!)
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To: HoustonCurmudgeon

X= quality or quantity unknown.
Spert = drip under pressure.

Certified LOON!


53 posted on 06/03/2010 4:39:22 PM PDT by Bigun ("It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." Voltaire)
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To: 7thOF7th

The Morlocks are pushing the oil out.


54 posted on 06/03/2010 4:42:15 PM PDT by HereInTheHeartland (Tagline: (optional, printed after your name on post):)
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To: HoustonCurmudgeon

AWESOME.


55 posted on 06/03/2010 6:04:29 PM PDT by Xenalyte (Yes, Chef!)
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To: 7thOF7th

The gas belts will leak into the voids created by the oil being lost and support the roof of the cavity.

See how easy it is when you have familiarized yourself with the world of MU?


56 posted on 06/03/2010 6:33:54 PM PDT by texmexis best (My)
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To: HoustonCurmudgeon

Well, there are some caverns of oil, Irann field, Dollarhide and Indian Hills to name a few. The biggest I have heard spoken of was 50 feet, we did drop 20 feet on one kelly in the Dollarhide.

That said, my sister did bite a moose on the cheese once.


57 posted on 06/03/2010 7:23:07 PM PDT by razorback-bert (Some days it's not worth chewing through the straps.)
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To: razorback-bert; HoustonCurmudgeon; Xenalyte; Bigun; stevie_d_64
We could spend some energy and burn a few neurons and explain it to him -- capillarity, ketogenesis, primary and secondary migration, pressure gradients and geopressure, pore-throat compaction and other skin effects, the concept of formation damage + borehole washout = you ain't got a well any more, I don't care how many BOPD it's making.

IBTZ is easier.

I vote for IBTZ.

58 posted on 06/03/2010 7:50:55 PM PDT by lentulusgracchus
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To: 7thOF7th

There is 18,000 feet of rock there it’s not likely to collapse.


59 posted on 06/03/2010 7:54:18 PM PDT by SWAMPSNIPER (The Second Amendment, A Matter Of Fact, Not A Matter Of Opinion)
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To: razorback-bert; lentulusgracchus; Smokin' Joe; stevie_d_64; Bigun; TWfromTEXAS; Xenalyte; cpdiii; ..
OK y'all while we have this ignorant thread to work with I have two questions.

If the riser is removed and they can get to the top flange why would you not place another BOP on top of what they have? I can see not doing it before because removing the bent riser lets more oil escape, but why not now?

Two if you ran drill pipe into the BOP now, assuming it is open, could you run it to a good depth or would you get so much back flow every time you connected a stand that it would be imposable? If you could run it in, pumping mud at a few thousand feet would be far better than the Top Kill idea, even though you would lose a hell of a lot of it.

60 posted on 06/03/2010 8:01:00 PM PDT by HoustonCurmudgeon ("I'll try to be NICER, if you will try to be SMARTER!" ~ MNJohnnie, FReeper)
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