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To: dennisw
Destroy the well, you destroy the means to control it. I do not know what you are using for sources, but I have worked as a geologist in the Oil industry for over 30 years. I have never worked for BP, nor do I have any financial interest in the company.

At issue is not saving the well, but controlling it for the purpose of plugging the well so that it will remain that way.

Wild-eyed calls for destruction of the wellbore whether by nuclear or conventional means all require drilling down beside the wellbore, which is what relief wells do.

Imagine keeping a six inch drill string in a 4 foot layer for two miles. It is done daily, and often the location of the layer is inferred from data as the well is being drilled.

How much easier it must be to hit a target where the survey data is known, relative position is known (within a few inches), and the geology is known.

The relief wells won't be wildcats.

Wells in the oil industry, even at the end of their life as oil wells, aren't "cap drimp demolished", they are plugged with cement plugs. Explosions are used to enable production, not stop it.

Maybe you need to go back and watch the Hellfighters--they used explosives to snuff out the flames by consuming oxygen (still a viable technique), but the well was controlled by installing valves on the wellhead.

The relief wells will permit the well to be plugged, and relief wells have been used before.

35 posted on 05/22/2010 8:13:21 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: Smokin' Joe
Wild-eyed calls for destruction of the wellbore whether by nuclear or conventional means all require drilling down beside the wellbore, which is what relief wells do.

Imagine keeping a six inch drill string in a 4 foot layer for two miles. It is done daily, and often the location of the layer is inferred from data as the well is being drille

The wild eyed approach is to trust in relief wells for two months while valuable fishing grounds get ruined for decades
Instead of two months it would take two weeks to drill three, four holes 300-500 ft down next to the gusher well. Then insert explosives to collapse the well

38 posted on 05/22/2010 8:36:58 AM PDT by dennisw (The falser the prophet the more mentally deranged the adherents)
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