Posted on 06/06/2010 8:10:16 AM PDT by chessplayer
Then they need to mine the well to get the oil to consumers! If they figured it out in 1979 they should be a bit smarter today.
Not gunna happen. Same dire predictions after gulf war one. Predictions were for 10 years to cap the wells, they were done in 18 mo.
well duh
But I thought we had reached peak oil? Won’t it just quit after the well is empty, or will it continuously refill until the end of time?
Why don’t they have a rubber plug built that can be inflated to block the flow? It would seem to be an engineering problem, you could then insert several back to back if needed. See, I won first prize. I have one of those in my plumbing kit.
No kidding.
Yeah! Paging Captain Obvious! Right up there with “Water stays wet until it evaporates!”
Q: What does ‘BP’ stand for?
A: Barrack’s Presidency.
A frog COULD fly if he had wings.
LLS
Iffin a frog had wings, he wouldn’t bump his ass a’hoppin.
It sounds like a good solution, but I believe they are concerned about breaking the pipe casing and causing more oil to escape.
The good news is we wouldn’t have to drill any more. We could build railroad tracks by the beaches, siphon off the oil and transport them straight to refineries.
Well, if the relief well offers much less resistance (aka “bigger hole”) then the flow from the current hole should be reduced enough to be manageable.
They used, among other things, lead balls to reduce the flow from the Ixtoc I oil well blowout. I'm not sure that using lead today would be permitted by the EPA.
One of the problems when working at 5,000 ft is the overwhelming pressure. Something along the lines of 5,000 psi. Trying to inflate anything is nearly impossible, what with the amazing atmospheric pressure at that depth.
Not to worry...Obama has formed a commission...retired politicians have been given pretentious titles...within a year or two, a report will be submitted...those responsible will be ostracized...letters of reprimand (which may include harsh language) will be mailed.
And if that isn't enough...beware the army of lawyers.
I would pay $1000.00 to hear the CEO of BP directly blame this fact on the owners of this delay of a fix.
How long would it take to stop a leak at 120 feet or on land?
Problem with drilling relief wells is that it’s a crapshoot. Paraphrasing Dr Michio Kaku from a radio interview on the Opie and Anthony show on XM earlier this week: “You’re drilling 1 to 2 miles, trying to hit a target the size of a dinner plate.”
The PEMEX accident, in 1979, streamed oil into the Gulf of Mexico for almost 10 months. I’d be curious to know how the area around it was affected, ecologically.
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