BP's Relief Well to Halt Oil Spill Will Cost $100MM

Rig Zone ^ | Tuesday, April 27, 2010 | Rig Zone Staff

[thackney]

As part of the company's well intervention efforts to shut off an oil leak at the Macondo well site in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, operator BP will drill a relief well that is estimated to cost approximately $100 million, the company's chief executive confirmed Tuesday.

Operating alongside the U.S. Coast Guard and the Minerals Management Service, BP has launched a comprehensive, pre-approved oil spill response plan following the April 22 sinking of Transocean's Deepwater Horizon semisub, roughly 130 miles southeast of New Orleans in almost 5,000 ft. of water.

Additionally, BP is pursuing other options to halt the oil leak, which includes the use of ROVs to activate the blowout preventer and the construction of a canopy over the pipeline connected to the well that would gather the 1,000 bbls/day of oil that is leaking at the source.

"The safety of the people working offshore is our top priority and the improved weather has created better conditions for our response," said BP Group Chief Executive Tony Hayward. "This, combined with the light, thin oil we are dealing with has further increased our confidence that we can tackle this spill offshore."

According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) experts participating in the spill response, the spill is "very thin" and consists of 97 percent sheen, BP said in a statement Tuesday.

BP will soon commence drilling operations on the first relief well using Transocean's GSF Development Driller III, which arrived on the scene late Monday. The relief well could potentially take up to three months to drill, Hayward said. BP will also drill a second relief well using Transocean's Discoverer Enterprise drillship, which is en route to Mississippi Canyon Block 252. Both relief wells will permanently secure the Macondo exploration well.

Macondo Prospect On location in Mississippi Canyon Block 252 in the Gulf of Mexico, the Deepwater Horizon recently concluded exploration drilling on the Macondo prospect. According to the Minerals Management Service, BP filed a permit to temporarily abandon the well, on which the Deepwater Horizon commenced drilling in February 2010. With a proposed depth of 20,000 ft, the exploration well was drilled to just over 18,000 ft.

Deepwater Horizon According to RigLogix, the Deepwater Horizon, an RBS-8D-designed dynamically-positioned semisub, was rated to work in water depths up to 10,000' and with a rated drilling depth capacity of 30,000'. The rig was under long-term contract to BP through September 2013 with a current dayrate in the low-$500s. The Deepwater Horizon was built in Ulsan, South Korea by Hyundai Heavy Industries at a cost of approximately $365 million and entered service in 2001.

[al baby]

I still think that Obama hired a crack team of the new black panthers and sabotaged that rig

[fso301]

I thought these things had some sort of shutoff valve sitting on the bottom. Did some manager decide to cut corners?

[SoldierDad]

Well, here comes another spike in price.

[thackney]

There is a large Blowout Preventer on the sea floor.

It is multistage and certainly not cheap.

It did not fully actuate and when robot submarines tried to manual actuate it has not shut off the flow.

My personal speculation is that it nearly closed, but not completely. The flow rate from the well is only 29 gpm, or about 3 garden hoses. It seems to me that it is partial shut off.

[STONEWALLS]

...there’s now way this won’t hurt BP’s balance sheet...anticipating a dividend cut; I sold my shares Monday....the company will be lucky if their containment operations go as planned.

[wita]

One has to wonder when the last drill rig explosion and oil spill took place just after a positive vote for off shore drilling.

[thackney]

ROBERT, La. - A file photo shows a view of the Deepwater Horizon Blowout Preventer, Sunday, April 25, 2010. The unified command has approved a plan that utilizes Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) in an effort to activate the blowout preventer on the sea floor and to stop the flow of oil that has been estimated at leaking up to 1,000 barrels/42,000 gallons a day.

- - - - - - - -

ROBERT, La. - A robotic arm of a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) attempts to activate the Deepwater Horizon Blowout Preventor (BOP), Thursday, April 22, 2010. In addition to the use of ROVs, the unified command is mobilizing the Development Driller III, a drilling rig that is expected to arrive Monday to prepare for relief well-drilling operations, to stop the flow of oil that has been estimated at leaking up to 1,000 barrels/42,000 gallons a day.

Gulf of Mexico - Transocean Drilling Incident - Coast Guard
http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/site/2931/

[trumandogz]

BP is going to have to shell out much more than that to clean up the Louisiana wetlands and pay commercial fishermen for lost revenue.

[SpaceBar]

Next we’ll hear how much more environmentally friendly Chinese and Russian rigs are, and that we should grant them more offshore leases. Just watch.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

One has to wonder when the last drill rig explosion and oil spill took place just after a positive vote for off shore drilling. I have been wondering about this. Envirowhackos would gladly kill people (not to mention an ecosystem or two) to make a political point. Wonder if there is any way to investigate this?

[thackney]

Sadly, they happen all to often. This was just one of the bad ones.

Oil Rig Disasters
http://home.versatel.nl/the_sims/rig/index.htm

[MARTIAL MONK]

I still think that Obama hired a crack team of the new black panthers and sabotaged that rig

A "crack" team of Black Panthers ain't what you think.

[Melchior]

Has BP announced what caused the explosion, or what they think caused the explosion?

[tommix2]

It did not fully actuate

Do they know why the BOP failed to actuate? I worked on a Transocean rig years ago and we had a BOP guy that thoroughly tested the BOP before it was used. That's all he did, work on that BOP, making sure it was working right.

[Orange1998]

Covered under warranty

[tommix2]

Wonder if there is any way to investigate this?

There is no way saboteurs could cause this type of failure. This happened at a certain stage of an operation that a saboteur would have no control of, and the saboteur would have no way of knowing how to bring about this train of events. Even if he had access to the BOP beforehand, he would not be able to make it do this and what followed. It was not sabotage.

[MARTIAL MONK]

There has been a lot of authoritative speculation but I haven’t seen anything definitive or official from the company.

[thackney]

U believe from the information provided so far, the explosion followed a blowout from the well. The explosion was not the first in these chain of events.

[thackney]

Not released, if known, yet.

The link in post #8 includes a video of A ROV trying to trip it.