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BP puts containment dome on gushing oil geyser
The Washington Post ^ | June 4, 2010 | Joel Achenbach

Posted on 06/03/2010 10:33:54 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

The well has been capped, more or less. BP engineers Thursday night guided a containment dome onto the hydrocarbon geyser shooting from the Gulf of Mexico oil well -- a desperate and iffy attempt to capture the leaking oil and funnel it to a ship on the surface.

It was not an elegant operation. Furious clouds of oil escaped the "top hat." Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the national incident commander for the spill, called the development a positive step but said, "It will be sometime before we can confirm that this method will work and to what extent it will mitigate the release of oil into the environment."

It was a day crammed with engineering drama. First, BP used robotic vehicles and a pair of giant shears to cut a damaged pipe a mile below the gulf's surface. The result simplified the whole arrangement at the sea floor: Instead of spewing from multiple leaks in a tangle of bent pipes, the oil and natural gas surged in a single plume from what looked like a deep-sea smokestack.

Then came the dome, lowered by cables, guided by robots, illuminated by lamps in a world without natural light, and carrying with it the hopes of countless engineers and pretty much the entire Gulf Coast.

Nothing has gone according to plan in the subsea environment as, on the surface, the oil has hit more than 100 miles of Louisiana shoreline. After brushing a barrier island in Alabama, it is poised to tar the white sand beaches of the Florida Panhandle. The area of the gulf closed to fishing is now larger than the state of Florida.(continued)

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Business/Economy; News/Current Events; US: Louisiana
KEYWORDS: energy; obama; oil; oilspill; slowtorespond
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
This solution seems like a no brainer. I thought of this and about 5 other solutions in the first five minutes. Maybe they should consult with Joe the plumber. What they need, it seems, is common sense approaches.
141 posted on 06/04/2010 11:14:37 PM PDT by Bellflower (If you are left DO NOT take the mark of the beast and be damned forever.)
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To: Rainwaves
"I guarantee there would be less oil flowing than what I see now.."

Yeah, right. Another "nuke the well" idiot. The probability is quite high that an explosion would actually make things worse.

142 posted on 06/05/2010 6:07:05 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog
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To: jpsb
"And we all know what a great job BP and Gov are doing at estimating the flow of the well.

And you know they're wrong how?? Are you an expert in flow measurement??

"There are three teams working on estimating the flow. Two teams have reported flows of 12k-19k.

Which range is what I am referring to.

"However the third team (the team that actually looks at the flow), will report a minimum flow of at least 25K."

Yeah, a bunch of idiots who look at video-cam footage and think they can tell something from it. Like moron from Purdue.

143 posted on 06/05/2010 6:09:48 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog
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To: mvpel
"Do you think that Holder would have hesitated in the slightest to prosecute REPUBLICAN Governor Jindal for multiple felony violations of EPA regulations and dragged him through a multi-million dollar defense in the hopes of getting a common-sense jury acquittal?"

Yes, I think precisely that. Holder would be tarred and feathered if he tried that.

144 posted on 06/05/2010 6:11:39 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog
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To: lentulusgracchus
"Amoco pulled the same play when False River blew out 30 years ago. Capture and sell, not close in and redrill."

WHERE did you dig up THIS tidit?? I'm from Pointe Coupee parish (which is where False River is located), and lived there when the blowout happened. There was no indication of any such attitude at that place and in that time.

145 posted on 06/05/2010 6:15:07 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog
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To: HiTech RedNeck

After Chomp was done there was not enough clean stub left to get a grip on the pipe.


146 posted on 06/05/2010 6:17:06 AM PDT by mad_as_he$$ (Don't go chasing waterfalls.....)
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To: Wonder Warthog

Sure are a lot of apologists for BP and the Obama admin on this issue.


147 posted on 06/05/2010 6:32:22 AM PDT by jpsb
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To: Cold Heat
"I think it’s the pipe that cased the BOP to fail."

Could very well be true. I've read that BP only put in 4 things that center the casing in the hole, Drillers and cementers wanted 3 times that many since this was a "problem" well. Might very well turn out that casing failure resulted from poor drilling practices by BP.

I've followed investigations into airline crashes. It almost always turns out that a series of small mistakes, poor practices and a little bad luck lead to a catastrophic failure. I'll bet dollars to donuts the same will be true here.

148 posted on 06/05/2010 6:39:59 AM PDT by jpsb
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To: gunsequalfreedom
"Let’s hope this thing is sealed."

There is no expection that this leak is going to be sealed for months. The best that we can hope for here is that they capture a good percentage of the oil. Estimates have been less than 50% will be captured by this operation.

A relief well is the only thing that is going to allow this flow to be stopped.

149 posted on 06/05/2010 7:04:19 AM PDT by JustaDumbBlonde (Don't wish doom on your enemies. Plan it.)
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To: 21twelve; Cold Heat
Sorta late to your discussion and I'm not sure what the correct data is as we all know it is being gathered or at least attemtps are being made to gather data. Here is a little info from a posting on FR a few days back that came from 'The Oil Drum'. These clips indicate that apparently several things may have been potential causes or at least impacted the final results of this blowout.

From the following posted article: Congressional Testimony and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill (Best summary yet - Technicals )


150 posted on 06/05/2010 7:43:38 AM PDT by deport
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To: Wonder Warthog
Yes, I think precisely that. Holder would be tarred and feathered if he tried that.

Given he wasn't tarred and feathered for dropping the case against racist thugs outside a polling place, I'm not sure what convinces you he'd be tarred and feathered for enforcing the letter of environmental law and regulations against a Republican.

151 posted on 06/05/2010 7:52:38 AM PDT by mvpel (Michael Pelletier)
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To: JustaDumbBlonde

The Saudis have a supertanker that can scoop up and process the water. There is a solution but nobogy wants to pay for it.


152 posted on 06/05/2010 8:12:50 AM PDT by gunsequalfreedom
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To: gunsequalfreedom

If the Saudis are such “good friends” of the U.S., why aren’t they sending the tankers on their own dime? It is not as if they can’t afford the cost. When a disaster happens anywhere in the world, the U.S. is the first there with physical assistance and aid. Look what we get in return.


153 posted on 06/05/2010 8:54:23 AM PDT by JustaDumbBlonde (Don't wish doom on your enemies. Plan it.)
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To: JustaDumbBlonde
If the Saudis are such “good friends” of the U.S., why aren’t they sending the tankers on their own dime?

What makes you think they did not offer? I heard early on that many nations have offered to help and their offers were refused. I agree with you about the rest of the world stepping up for us once in a while - don't get me wrong on that.

154 posted on 06/05/2010 10:01:49 AM PDT by gunsequalfreedom
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To: deport

Thanks for the detailed testomony on the BOP. Their were problems before that thoguh, and the company man saying something like “that’s what the pinchers are for”. (The BOP).

I liken it to the guy doing the driving (the driller) telling his passenger that he’s going as fast as he can but he has to drive slow as it is raining, his tires are bald, they’re on a mountain road, and the brakes aren’t vey good and the seatbelts are crap. But the passenger tells him - “Step on it. I’m the boss, and that is what the airbags are for”.

You know you’re in a bad situation when your method of last resort kicks in. But to rely on that.....


155 posted on 06/05/2010 10:52:26 AM PDT by 21twelve ( UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES MY ARSE: "..now begin the work of remaking America."-Obama, 1/20/09)
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To: gunsequalfreedom

If you heard that the Saudis offered a tanker to suck up and separate the oil and we refused the offer, I’d really like to read up on that. Do you remember where you heard this?


156 posted on 06/05/2010 11:14:59 AM PDT by JustaDumbBlonde (Don't wish doom on your enemies. Plan it.)
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To: JustaDumbBlonde

You should be able to find it in a google news search under super tanker scooper of some variation of that. I see if I can find it.


157 posted on 06/05/2010 1:32:44 PM PDT by gunsequalfreedom
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To: JustaDumbBlonde
From an article at this link...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/24/tech/main6514382.shtml

“Former Shell Oil president John Hofmeister and former Saudi Aramco manager Nick Pozzi told Fast Company that 85 percent of oil from a massive offshore Saudi spill in the early 1990s was cleaned up using supertankers to suck in seawater and oil - millions of barrels at a time - and discharge them in port where the two substances could be separated and treated.

Hofmeister and Pozzi each said they'd tried suggesting the solution to both BP and government officials, and have heard crickets.

Perhaps, as Pozzi tells Fast Company, it's the downside to the plan: “You tie up oil tankers” - tankers that could be carrying crude above the Gulf's waters to customers.”

The article explains that with the plumes of oil far under the service, as with the present spill, the supertanker will not work.

It is also very, very expensive to operate. A supertanker is used to transport oil. Divert from that use and you still pay what it would have been earning and then some.

I have to think, though, that had it been called in, a lot of the coastline would not be oiled.

Here is the link to Fast Company

http://www.fastcompany.com/1646820/could-the-gulf-oil-spill-could-cleaned-up-by-supertankers

158 posted on 06/05/2010 1:39:01 PM PDT by gunsequalfreedom
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To: Wonder Warthog
WHERE did you dig up THIS tidit??.....There was no indication of any such attitude at that place and in that time.

From the horse's mouth, neighbor. From an Amoco manager who was giving a talk about False River and the "sombrero" to an industry group. Memory dims as to exact circumstances now, but the talk was given before either the New Orleans Geological Society or maybe a local chapter of the American Petroleum Institute; or the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies, which latter is a subgroup of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, with which most local geological societies like NOGS are associated. Both GCAGS and the AAPG hold annual conventions at which papers are presented on current topics, and False River was one of those topics, being a major trend discovery. The local societies have talks like that, too, at their monthly luncheon and/or dinner meetings, the talks being less formal and "things said" which would not be said in a more-formal setting where the press might be present.

The speaker, as I recall, was an Amoco manager (no, he was not a dewy-faced young geologist or engineer, this was a hooking-bull company man), and his comment was, as he discussed the eventual closing-in of the wild well (which would entail expensive repairs before it could again be turned to sales), that he almost didn't want to close the well in, cash flow from the well was so high that it was going to hurt his monthly/quarterly results.

It was a "tell" -- it told us what guys at his level were (and typically do continue to be) thinking about. There's cash flow, and then there's cash flow. On the other hand, you have cash flow, and then there's cash flow to consider, too. And did I mention cash flow?

As a major-company division manager once told me, when I was barely two years in the industry, "We aren't drilling for oil, we're drilling for dollars."

159 posted on 06/06/2010 12:29:15 PM PDT by lentulusgracchus
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To: deport
"But lawyers for BP contacted the Committee yesterday and provided a different account."

Beware landsharks bearing gifts of new information.

160 posted on 06/06/2010 12:42:13 PM PDT by lentulusgracchus
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