Posted on 04/30/2010 9:51:25 AM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
“there was that refinery explosion in Texas that killed 15 workers”
In all fairness, if I remember correctly, those refineries came from a then recent acquisition of Amoco. I could be wrong, but I do have friends and family in the industry.
Dumb question here. Power to operate BOP valve from where? With Deepwater Horizon sunk, what provides hydraulic power to BOP valve?
More Info:
Halliburton had completed the cementing of the final production casing string in accordance with the well design approximately 20 hours prior to the incident,” the company said in a release.
“The cement slurry design was consistent with that utilized in other similar applications.”
Halliburton also said the cement and casing job had been tested.
“At the time of the incident, well operations had not yet reached the point requiring the placement of the final cement plug which would enable the planned temporary abandonment of the well, consistent with normal oilfield practice,” the company said.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2504050/posts
I am well past thinking anything beneficial to Obama's agenda is mere coincidence.
The BP-Amoco merger was in April 2000 and the Texas refinery explosion was in March 2005. So no excuse.
And then there was the retirement of the BP CEO after these “accidents” — retirement, not firing for cause — golden parachute intact until it came out that he had had BP hire his boyfriend
And the recent allegations that the Brits released the Libyan terrorist convicted in the Lockerbie bombing in order to promote a BP-Libyan natural gas deal.
I know a few old Amoco employees who now work for BP. They do not seem to like BP, and speak fondly of how the company was better under Amoco.
That's a very good question. In critical fail-safe applications in the aerospace industry it's a requirement that "switchs" fail in a safe state with loss of power.
IOW active power is required to maintain the valve in the open state.
I’m sure that the ChiCom wells off of Cuba will be much better.
And spills will be responded to quickly with lots of the latest equipment...
The good news for BP is they didn’t drill a dry well.
I think you had the best comment of this for the whole week.
"Halliburton also was the cementer on a well that suffered a big blowout last August in the Timor Sea, off Australia. The rig there caught fire and a well leaked tens of thousands of barrels of oil over 10 weeks before it was shut down. The investigation is continuing; Halliburton declined to comment on it."
Thanks for the ping.
Chavez and the Arabs would be delighted if we shut down Gulf drilling to protect the environment.
thackney, IIRC you work for a oil company or are in the business. We have not kept up with all the news. Yet, we have heard reports of sabotage, stuck valves, Obama covering ass and being able to retreat on Gulf dilling.
Do have have deep sea exploration experience? If so, is it common to have this many functions fail at once. It seems there were valves and check valves that malfunctioned?
I have to believe these rigs are the utmost of safety. Any ideas on what (really) happened?
........what is running around in that guys head to knee jerk with this reaction?......
Horse , barn door
Apparently they’re working on something just like that. Except they refer to it as a dome.
I’ve heard one explanation that made some sense and would have been the result of really bad timing with a blowout.
I’ve worked offshore before, but not much and only for production, not exploration.
For me it is more a combination of career with hobby interest (or obsession).
A friend of mine called me and asked me to help him on a job straighting some drill pipe. We got to the rig, and there was a geyser of salt water blowing about 100ft. The drill pipe it spit out of the hole looked like about a 1500ft pile of spaghetti. How they expected him to straighten that crap out we never could figure out, but they were as serious as could be. I tried my best not to be a smart ass to the customer, but I'm afraid I just couldn't resist.
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