Drilling Process Attracts Scrutiny in Rig Explosion

Wall Street Journal ^ | 4/30/2010 | RUSSELL GOLD And BEN CASSELMAN

[thackney]

An oil-drilling procedure called cementing is coming under scrutiny as a possible cause of the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico that has led to one of the biggest oil spills in U.S. history, drilling experts said Thursday.

The process is supposed to prevent oil and natural gas from escaping by filling gaps between the outside of the well pipe and the inside of the hole bored into the ocean floor. Cement, pumped down the well from the drilling rig, is also used to plug wells after they have been abandoned or when drilling has finished but production hasn't begun.

In the case of the Deepwater Horizon, workers had finished pumping cement to fill the space between the pipe and the sides of the hole and had begun temporarily plugging the well with cement; it isn't known whether they had completed the plugging process before the blast.

Regulators have previously identified problems in the cementing process as a leading cause of well blowouts, in which oil and natural gas surge out of a well with explosive force. When cement develops cracks or doesn't set properly, oil and gas can escape, ultimately flowing out of control. The gas is highly combustible and prone to ignite, as it appears to have done aboard the Deepwater Horizon, which was leased by BP PLC, the British oil giant.

Concerns about the cementing process—and about whether rigs have enough safeguards to prevent blowouts—raise questions about whether the industry can safely drill in deep water and whether regulators are up to the task of monitoring them.

The scrutiny on cementing will focus attention on Halliburton Co., the oilfield-services firm that was handling the cementing process on the rig, which burned and sank last week.

[ClearCase_guy]

It's a shame to let a good crisis go to waste.

I'm not banking heavily on any of this, but if it were sabotage, and if Obama could shift blame to Haliburton, Tea Partiers, or anyone else, then he might be able to use this to push his leftist agenda. And he could argue that fossil fuels are bad for us and bad for the environment.

The envirowackos get what they want, and blame is shifted to others, and Obama can crackdown on rightwing extremists.

It's a win-win-win. But maybe I'm not quite that paranoid.

[thackney]

The wellhead is nearly 5,000 feet deep.

ROV’s are being used.

[Cheesehead In Dubai]

Yes, several events lined up to go catastrophically wrong. None of it has anything to do with terrorism or sabotage. The people that think it’s terrorism should play the lottery. The odds are about the same.

[TexasFreeper2009]

It’s now been TEN days? What has Obama done? played golf? attended a few fancy banquets? Bow to a dictator or two?

TEN days!

Obama = epic failure.

[McKayopectate]

I understand the “don’t let a crisis go to waste,” but what I don’t get is how could they possibly blame this on TPers, conservatives, or even the company itself. The OBVIOUS criminals would be Tree-huggers. He’s really whacked to pull this kind of stunt. There’s been many industrial accidents, but no president, et al has ever called out investigative brute squads to check it out. Very odd in my book. It’s like he was expecting it, and this was his planned response to it. Okay, I’ll hang up my tinfoil hat now.

[IMR 4350]

People would be surprised how often this happens on land rigs, they just don’t hear about it.

[omega4412]

...our energy equivalent of the Reichstag fire.

Alternatively, BP screwed up. Not the first time -- there was that refinery explosion in Texas that killed 15 workers, that oil leak in Alaska from a corroded pipeline. BP might just be a few engineers short of a oil company.

[fso301]

I wonder why a giant funnel with say a 10 ft diameter flexible hose can’t be lowered to the floor to cover the well head? Escaping oil would travel up through the flexible hose where it could be contained and pumped out by skimmers.

[ridesthemiles]

HOW LONG has that oil rig been in operation?

[thackney]

Deepwater Horizon was completed in 2001

http://rigzone.com/data/rig_detail.asp?rig_id=153

[Riodacat]

It was a dumb ass operator not monitoring the way he was supposed to.

Shouldn't matter even if the operator was chugging back a beer and taking a leak in the ocean when this happened - these gawd-damned systems need to be idiot-proof.
That means multiple redundant back-up safety systems.
If, with all our technology, we can't do that, then we shouldn't be drilling off-shore.

[norraad]

BP sucks, royally, thanks for bringing that up, I had forgotten.

They represent the core hell-hole of corponazi Jack Benny'ism.

They hire soulless mid-managers who only care about the next carrot on a stick bonus and will nix any safety issue they think they can get away with for another bite.

[thackney]

It is under construction now.

But there are leaks in multiple locations.

[Voter62vb]

I like the idea. Properly weighted and hooked to piping. it almost seems like it would be a thing to have on hand in an area like the Gulf.

Now, obviously, 5000 ft of, what? 18 inch diameter pipe or so is a boat load...

But c’mon - we’re Americans!!! We can get this thing done! Where’s Red Adair?

[Voter62vb]

Tinfoilily, I respond: Obama sent SWAT out to “clean up” any people who knew too much...

But as I take my tinfoil off, I have to say it is a bogus story as all the SWAT Teams are plodding around in their bomb gear asking senior TEA Party folks to back off the grass.

[thackney]

The base of a pollution containment chamber is moved to a construction area at Wild Well Control, Inc. in Port Fourchon, La., April 26, 2010. The chamber will be one of the largest ever built and will be used in an attempt to contain an oil leak related to the mobile offshore drilling unit Deepwater Horizon explosion. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer Third Class Patrick Kelley.

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

It may be built by now...

[Liberty Valance]

The oil covered bird pics are already out ...

Dr. Erica Miller, with Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research, works to give a dose of Pepto-Bismol to a Northern Gannet bird, normally white when full grown, which is covered in oil from a massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico, at a facility in Fort Jackson, La., Friday, April 30, 2010.
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

[screaminsunshine]

I imagine BP is busy getting all of its assets out of the country. They will shut the Gulf down so fast it will make your head spin. All the oil companies will evacuate the USA. They will move operations to more business friendly environments than the USA.

[GreyFriar]

Sounds plausible to me.

[thackney]

Found an update:

Meanwhile, the UK supermajor is fabricating components to connect a subsea oil recovery system to Transocean’s drillship Discoverer Enterprise in order to collect oil leaking from Macondo and store it within the rig’s storage tanks.

Mechanism

The structure was already completed at the Wild Well Control yard in Port Fourchon, Louisiana but crews continue work on the equipment needed to connect the structure to the Discoverer Enterprise.

The Discoverer Enterprise is capable of receiving 20,000 barrels per day and can store over 125,000 barrels within its hull, Suttles said.

The oil will then be offloaded using the 300,000 barrel Overseas Cascade shuttle tanker, which was recently converted for Brazilian operator Petrobras.

BP expects to deploy this recovery system within two to four weeks. The same system has been used in shallow water, but never in the deep-water Gulf.

“The issue is to make certain it can withstand the pressure of the much deeper water at the side and to be able to sort out the various topsides processing issues,” BP chief financial officer Byron Grote said in an analysts call earlier this week.

Attempts to shut off the flow through the BOP with an ROV have not been successful, Suttles said, but those efforts will continue with eight different ROVs

http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article213349.ece
29 April 2010 06:32 GMT

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