With the size of this well, a relief well would be a bag of shells. Supposedly this is one of the biggest oil reserves left.
Two major mistakes in operating.
One, the bottom section of pipe was cemented inside.
It is the smallest diameter in the well.
As they go up the well the pipe sections get bigger,
and are sealed with a sealring at each size stepdown
as well as cement on the outside to bedrock..
Testimony says that they didn’t think think it
was needed to seal the bottom section to the next
bigger section above, and the folks relating this
figure that the gas and oil under 14,000 psi blew
out between these two.Above the cement plug in the
bottom section. As stupid as can be.
And second mistake was replacing heavy mud
above all this with lighter seawater to try to save time
putting in the top cement seal.
These are really secondary causes, as the main cause is
oil company and gov greed. The whole sleazy business of
cementing huge fields and pressures like this to keep them
off the market for high prices and gov getting high
taxes is criminal..Should be hooked to the pipeline system
when drilled, not backed up against the pressure,
and gotten to the refinery and any corresponding
amount from the ME shutoff. Also the biggest continental
shelf area in thr gulf is off west coast of FL,
good for shallower drilling, should have couple thousand
wells there also, and shutoff rest off ME oil.
Starving the terrorists and drop energy prices would
be a boon to the US. Ed