I hate to sound ignint, but I was wondering about a couple of methods to at least slow the leaks:
1) Freeze the damn pipe, and I know it probably wont stop the flow, but maybe, just maybe it’d slow it.
2) Instead of pumping mud into the damn blowout preventer, start pumping seawater into the blowout preventer, with as much pressure as the system can stand, and perhaps you would dilute the output of the pipe that is leaking with a seawater/oil mix?
Anyone think either of these methods would work?
The reason the top kill failed was that the BOP is not sealed, and the “mud” injected below the BOP valve just blew back out. They said only 10% of it was going into the well, and this was not enough. The “junk shots” were an attempt to clog the BOP and reduce the blowback of the “mud” but this didn’t work and is the crux of the failure.
You can see that pumping seawater instead of “mud” would accomplish nothing. The point of the “mud” is that it’s heavy, and the idea is that if you get enough in there it will start to sink of its own weight and seal the well.
As to freezing the BOP ... how could you hope to do that? It’s pretty cold there anyway, and this causes problems with clathrate formation when they try to capture the outflow.
They should try pumping in Barbie Dolls to plug the leak. They work like a charm to plug up a toilet.