Oil leaks from BP's Gulf of Mexico well before the cap is placed over it
Posted on 07/12/2010 11:17:14 PM PDT by Cardhu
BP has successfully placed a new cap over the leaking Gulf of Mexico oil well.
The success was revealed on murky live pictures from an underwater camera and broadcast on BP's website.
They show the "Top Hat 10" device hovering and then lowering completely over the well that had been gushing a mile (1,600 meters) beneath the surface.
The valve has been designed to be a much tighter fit than its predecessor, so as to completely contain the oil.
Once it is screwed into place, BP plans to perform an "integrity test" lasting between six and 48 hours. The US government and BP are due to decide by Thursday whether the valve can stay in place to seal the well shut.
The company's share price, which has taken a battering since the disaster happened three months ago, rose around 5% yesterday as hopes for a solution increased. The oil company has used 46,000 staff and 6,400 ships so far in the clean-up effort.
The operation began after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank on April 20 and crude oil began spewing into the ocean.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sky.com ...
Watch 0bama come out tomorrow and claim credit for stopping the leak.
3, 2, 1... countdown to Dear Leader taking complete credit for leak being capped, heading to the links and a hip-hop concert...
As he tees off.
Good job!
Three weeks ago the share price was down 90%. Has it recovered that much?
Trial lawyers will be hard at work sorting things out.
Wow, great news.
the oil company has used 46,000 staff and 6,400 ships so far in the clean-up effort.
Pretty amazing feat as I see it! The men who have been working 24/7 to do this job under water deserve much credit. This was the first time many of their operations have been done at this depth.
My hats off to these guys and their crew!!!!!
46,000 staff.. Whatever it takes to get the unemployment numbers down.
Now it'll only take 100 years to clean up the damage done.
The environmental damage will clear up in about two years. The legal, economic and political damage will go on for generations
Now the question is whether the entire downhole infrastructure can contain the pressure that will build up in the well now that it is shut off. I see one of three scenarios:
1. The pressure builds and the cap holds steady at high pressure;
2. The pressure declines indicating the well is leaking gas/fluid into the surrounding formation where it can make its way to the surface in an uncontrollable manner away from the well; or
3. The weakened casing and cement can’t hold the pressure and the entire entire structure - cap, old BOP and pipe come loose and oil and gas come out the borehole uncontrolled.
Because of the possibility of scenarios 2 and 3 occurring, the test is only going to be of relatively short duration and the surface vessels will be ready to capture oil and gas once it ends.
oh yeah! lol....that’s right! I’m just so glad they got it capped..and lets hope it works until they can concrete that well shut.
By the way anyone looking for ‘truck driving jobs’ and such need to go to Bradford country where all the oil wells and windmills are happening...my brother just returned from there and said there is work there that pays good money. If you can run a bulldozer...and other like equipment as well. Their trucks are running 24/7 all thru the county....and frankly it’s a beautiful area to live.
It was never down 90%. Here’s the 52-week range: 26.75 - 62.38.
It’s now at about $38, so it is $24 down from it’s 52-week high. It’s up quite a bit in the past few weeks, relative to it’s low of 26 hit a little while ago.
These are old shots...why are you posting them?
4 - The pressure will hold for a few days. Obama makes a speech containing 100 words and 58 of those words are the word I. BP stock rallies. Work continues on the Relief Well. The top cap is only a temporary solution after all. Then either oil starts leaking out of the ground, around the well head or from some structurally failing point in the old BOP. Since Obama made his speech and BP stock has risen, they wont report the fact that the well is now leaking again and it is now just about impossible to collect any of the oil. They will then rush the Relief Well to hopefully stop all the additional oil leakage.
The obvious safest path is to collect almost all the oil leaking now, which is possible with the new CAP assembly. While they wait and perform a proper Relief Well operation.
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.