The Gulf Deepwater Oil Spill - the Top Kill Attempt

The next attempt to shut off the flow from the leaking BP well in the Gulf is still aimed to occur early Wednesday. The attempt will use the “top kill” method to try and kill the well. While I have described this in earlier posts, the Unified Command have put out a video animation of the process, and there was an earlier diagram. So I am going to use these, which are simplified explanations, with some additional comments and tie it in to more facts that came out of briefings today, to try and give a more detailed explanation. Here is the animation:

(scroll up for animation)
Before the process could begin, however, it was necessary to significantly modify the blow-out preventer (BOP) that sits on the top of the well. For those interested (its a bit like watching one of the operations on the space station) BP has assembled a short (5 minute) selection of the video footage of the various steps. When watching it, you should bear in mind that the ROV’s carrying out the different steps have to operate in a relatively crowded environment.

Interesting post on the oildrum.com

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6493

With appropriate caveats:

BP contracted Schlumberger (SLB) to run the Cement Bond Log (CBL) test that was the final test on the plug that was skipped. The people testifying have been very coy about mentioning this, and you’ll see why.

SLB is an extremely highly regarded (and incredibly expensive) service company. They place a high standard on safety and train their workers to shut down unsafe operations.

SLB gets out to the Deepwater Horizon to run the CBL, and they find the well still kicking heavily, which it should not be that late in the operation. SLB orders the “company man” (BP’s man on the scene that runs the operation) to dump kill fluid down the well and shut-in the well. The company man refuses. SLB in the very next sentence asks for a helo to take all SLB personel back to shore. The company man says there are no more helo’s scheduled for the rest of the week (translation: you’re here to do a job, now do it). SLB gets on the horn to shore, calls SLB’s corporate HQ, and gets a helo flown out there at SLB’s expense and takes all SLB personel to shore.

6 hours later, the platform explodes.

Pick your jaw up off the floor now. No CBL was run after the pressure tests because the contractor high-tailed it out of there. If this story is true, the company man (who survived) should go to jail for 11 counts of negligent homicide.

--if anyone out there has a reference to any wrap-up of the long term results of the Ixtoc leak in 1979 (went on for seven months, IIRC), I'd sure appreciate it---

Here is one, which centers on bioremediation:

Recent developments in the biology sciences, particularly in molecular biology, have demonstrated a high potential for application in different industries. In the petroleum industries microorganisms and their products can play an important role in oil recovery (MEOR-Microbial Enhanced Oil Recovery), petroleum de-asphalting, viscosity control, desulphurization, oil spill control, waste management and detoxification (2). The oil spillage in marine environments has been heralded as one of the worst ecological catastrophes in history; for example the Iran/Iraq war resulted in a total oil spillage of about two million barrels, about one fifth the size of the current spill. This caused relatively modest ecological damage (8). The major question is what the fate of oil pollutants in the seas is? Degradation of crude oil depends on composition, concentration, physical state, water solubility, sulfur content, local conditions, previous exposures, and temprature. For instance with oil spill from IXTOC-1 oil well platform off coast of in Mexico, 50% evaporated, 25% sunk to the ocean bottom as a residue, 12% degraded by microbial and photochemical oxidation, 6% removed mechanically or burnt, 6% reached shore and contaminated Mexican shoreline and 1% reached beaches in Texas(1). The oil degradation can be seen in different levels including water surface, deeper waters, and sediments. Bacterial degradation, which called Biodegradation, can occur in each zone (2). After oil contamination the marine animals would damage most of all, e.g. after Torrey Canyon spill (1967) zooplankton community devasted, 90% of pilchard fish eggs destroyed, large number of young fish (fry) also died and some commercially important fish swallowed tar balls and were inedible and muscles of fish acquired a “petroleum taste”. There were some sign of decrease average size in some of limpets and effects on sea birds that emerge as disorders in their endocrine system, and eggs (1). Today based on the fact that biodegradation is the major process for removal of nonvolatile oil components from the environment, bioremediation has been proved to play important role in environmental cleanup. Some investigators have suggested adding specially selected hydrocarbon degrading bacteria (seeding) to enhance the rate of biodegradation in contaminated area (4). These bacteria use petroleum as carbon and energy source (that is essential for each organism) and produce biosurfactant during the procedure.Biosurfactants facilitate hydrocarbon uptake through the hydrophilic outer membrane. Many oil utilizing microorganisms produce cell-wall-associated or extra cellular surface active agents (6). Biosurfactant disperses the oil and facilitate its uptake by microbial cells. These metabolites have lower toxicity and high biodegradability (5)

http://www.civilica.com/Printable-ICOPMAS06_106.html(

(Emphasis mine)

The US developed a plan in 1994 to deal with precisely this type of thing.

Plan came together and approved by Congress.

Booms to confine and then burn the oil were authorized for purchase and storage.

Those booms are no where in sight. The most likely thing I have been able to glean is that Brazil has at least some of them - urged on quite possibly by Soros since he has huge money interests there.

It seems that companies who make the booms didn’t sell them to Brazil (and who know who else) ... yet Brazil definitely has some now. I understand that the US is “borrowing” some of them now.

If you recall weeks ago the Coast Guard was supposed to do a “burn test”... that was delayed and delayed because they didn’t have the booms.

Yes, I do believe there is major cause for investigation.

Cement can then be pumped into the well to seal the top end. (Or with the flow stopped, another BOP can be put on the well to seal it). The main worry is that the hole in the top of the BOP is small enough to contain the additional flow volumes, and not allow the entire flow to escape upwards rather than being forced down the well. The higher flows might, in addition, if they do exit the riser, further erode the openings. This could increase the oil flow, as it lowers the resistance. (If this happened then the LMRP will be deployed).
There are, however, a number of caveats to this operation. If the pressure in the well gets too high it can cause fractures in the rock at the bottom of the well, and this can cause the mud in the well to flow into the rock, rather than sitting in the well holding the pressure against the oil pressure.

What's a LMRP?

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