Posted on 06/14/2010 7:05:05 PM PDT by Pan_Yan
Subsea Source Control and Containment
The lower marine riser package (LMRP) containment cap, installed on June 3, continues to collect oil and gas flowing from the MC252 well and transport them to the Discoverer Enterprise drillship on the surface.
In the first 12 hours of June 13 (midnight to noon), approximately 7,720 barrels of oil were collected and 16.9 million cubic feet of natural gas were flared. On June 12, a total of approximately 15,000 barrels of oil were collected and 32.9 million cubic feet of natural gas were flared. The total volume of oil collected by the LMRP cap system since it began operation is approximately 127,000 barrels. A further approximately 22,000 barrels of oil previously had been collected through use of the Riser Insertion Tube Tool and stored in the Discoverer Enterprise. Between June 9 and 11 approximately 115,000 barrels of collected oil were transferred from storage on the Discoverer Enterprise to the barge Massachusetts between June 9 and 11. The Massachusetts left the MC252 site on June 11 to discharge the oil at a terminal in Mobile, Alabama. Once discharge is complete, the barge will return to the MC252 site.
The volume of oil captured and gas flared is being updated twice daily on BP’s website, www.bp.com. The LMRP containment cap has never before been deployed at these depths and conditions, and its efficiency and ability to contain the oil and gas cannot be assured.
Preparations for additional planned enhancements to the LMRP cap containment system continue to progress. The first planned addition, to operate in addition to the LMRP cap system, will take oil and gas from the choke line of the failed Deepwater Horizon blow-out preventer (BOP) through a separate riser to the Q4000 vessel on the surface. Both the oil and gas captured by this additional system are expected to be flared through a specialised clean-burning system. This system is intended to increase the amount of oil and gas that can be captured from the well and is currently anticipated to begin operations in the next few days.
Preparations are also underway for more permanent and flexible containment system employing floating risers. A manifold has been deployed on the seabed and a suction pile to anchor a riser has been installed. It is currently anticipated that this system will be available to begin first operations around the end of June/early July.
Plans are being developed to further develop these systems and also for further options to provide additional containment capacity and flexibility, in line with requests made by the US Coast Guard.
Work on the first relief well, which started May 2, continues and has currently reached a depth of 13,978 feet. The second relief well, which started May 16, is at 9,022 feet. Both wells are still estimated to take approximately three months to complete from commencement of drilling.
Good news all! They sealed the well!
They put a huge wedding band around the wellhead and it stopped “putting out”
Ping to latest updates at the BOP.
Ummm ... you're doing it wrong.
Apparently LoL
Some are for sure going to think I am just being loony here, but honestly, the fact that there has not been a complete well failure to the point there is not control at all suggests that God really has been looking out for the people in charge of actually controlling the leak, the engineers and rig workers, etc. We have been talking about setting up elaborate technology and huge machinery to set up contaiment plans at rapid speed and dealing with our hapless adminsitration threatning complete takeover among other things. Just need to keep prayers going some more, I think.
THANKS!
Thanks for the update thread!
Agreed.
Ping to latest update on what’s going on at the BOP.
‘flared’, means burned off, right?
If I had to guess, pressure.
475,000 barrels collected off of surface. Not bad.
Read the whole report for stuff that won’t make it into the MSM.
Q4000
Enterprise
Boa Deep C
I’ve been wondering about that for two days.
Yes. I wish I could find a picture of that. It must be an impressive flare.
Thank you for posting this information, Pan_Yan.
Yes
Impressive hi tech boats there.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.