Posted on 05/09/2010 2:57:38 AM PDT by chemicalman
A novel but risky attempt to use a 100-ton steel-and-concrete box to cover a deepwater oil well gushing toxic crude into the Gulf of Mexico was aborted Saturday after ice crystals encased it, an ominous development as thick blobs of tar began washing up on Alabama's white sand beaches.
The setback left the mission to cap the ruptured well in doubt. It had taken about two weeks to build the box and three days to cart it 50 miles out then slowly lower it to the well a mile below the surface, but the frozen depths were too much for it to handle.
Still, BP officials overseeing the cleanup efforts were not giving up just yet on hopes that a containment box -- either the one brought there or a larger one being built -- could cover the well and be used to capture the oil and funnel it to a tanker at the surface to be carted away. Officials said it would be at least Monday before a decision was made on what next step to take.
"I wouldn't say it's failed yet," BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles said. "What I would say is what we attempted to do ... didn't work."
There was a renewed sense of urgency as small bits of tar began washing up on Dauphin Island, three miles off the Alabama mainland at the mouth of Mobile Bay and much farther east than the thin, rainbow sheens that had so far arrived sporadically in the Louisiana marshes.
(Excerpt) Read more at wwltv.com ...
Are the ice crystals caused by the escaping natural gas?
Is it like cooling a can of beer by venting propane from a tank? I have done that, not smart.
Possible condensate from the well forming ice. At that depth and pressure, it’ll make things cold.
About a week ago or so I read a piece someplace that indicated the only way to stop this massive leak would be to launch a bunker-buster type bomb into it. Sounded far fetched, but maybe there is something to that idea!
“About a week ago or so I read a piece someplace that indicated the only way to stop this massive leak would be to launch a bunker-buster type bomb into it. Sounded far fetched, but maybe there is something to that idea!”
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Were you listening to Rush Limbaugh? That’s where I think I heard it. It may have been Neal Bortz though. They sound very similar.
no actually I read it in an article. Evidently the Russians did something similar some years ago.
It sounded scary, though.
Since the crude is lighter than water, they should have filled the containment vessel full of crude at the surface and kept it, well, not topped-off, but filled as the pressure increased until it was in place.
“no actually I read it in an article. Evidently the Russians did something similar some years ago.
It sounded scary, though.”
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Rush (or neal...lol...sorry) was saying that Russia has done that several times, and thay they use nukes for other purposes as well, but I can’t remember what other pruposes he said.
> Possible condensate from the well forming ice. At that depth and pressure, it’ll make things cold.
Methane hydrate is formed at high pressure from water and methane. Methane hydrate crystals look like shiny flakes of moth balls.
When I was a diver we used loose fitting wet suits which had warm water pumped to the diver to keep him warm. I bet they retrive the box and attach fittings to pump hot water or hot alcohol into the box to fix this ice problem.
taylor diving and salvage ?
Seaward Marine Services. Civilian diver for the Navy.
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