BP, federal officials confer on closed gulf oil well cap

Washington Post ^ | Sunday, July 18, 2010; 2:44 PM | David A. Fahrenthold

[Marine_Uncle]

Roger that on the gas sample activity. On to todays postings E had pinged me on on subsurface disturbances etc..

[justa-hairyape]

Lots of news breaking today and the spin cycle is on high speed.

[SuziQ]

A leading oil industry voice, meanwhile, raised another scenario on NBC's "TODAY" show Sunday: keep producing the well and use the funds to restore the Gulf.

Sounds like a good plan, to me!

[Marine_Uncle]

"Lots of news breaking today and the spin cycle is on high speed."
I commented to Ernest on another thread that it is enough to make a grown man hual his butt upstairs to the refrig and reach in for a cold can of Coors Extra Gold. Had been at work from 5AM to 3PM, just getting on board. Yea. Time for a Coors to reduce physical pain levels a bit.
A note that we probably will discuss in the near future. Ernest had posted a day back or so an article dealing with a recent 3.5 level subterranian earthquake in the GOM. I have a suspicion this may have something to do with some leakage in the seafloor in the eastern GOM area. Let this play out as we move forward in monitoring what is going on, if it warrants investigation.
Could also be a misleading statement on my part, not deliberately intended.

[justa-hairyape]

When I was in Florida a couple of months ago, felt a small tremor one night on a high floor in a Hotel. Did some research, but if it was an earthquake, it was too weak to register any where. So I have been keeping my antennae up for that kinda possibility. Latest scuttlebut is that they may want to try a Top Kill again, while the cap is on. Hey, if at first you don't succeed, .....

[Marine_Uncle]

I'm not against another shot if all parties come to the conclusion the risk factore of busting the damn old/new BOP and associated structure(s) is not a high probability.
Besides. With those much lower constant pressure readings being as they are, ex. 7.6k range, far less then then what was original recording in that final day or so, 9K, perhaps things have stabilized within the whole geo structure where they could kill it with ease at this point.
Ernest article dealt with a deep sea quake of minor R scale, that I think took place a few months back, site unkown precicely at present. I will see if I can find post, then let you know the URL.

[justa-hairyape]

The irony of the situation right now is that the higher the pressure gets, the more difficult it is to get the mud down to the breach. So what they want, higher pressure, makes everything more difficult. So somethings wrong here. Yes I know that higher pressure is desirable to prove that we have an intact well bore, but I do not think too many people still think the well bore is 100 % intact. Except perhaps for Kent Wells and the BP cheerleader squad. My guess is that we have one last shot at stopping this beast, and it gets more difficult every hour. Expect the next big thing they try, to not make much sense, or to even be loosely supported by what they have said in the past.

[Marine_Uncle]

Fair enough statements. But let us not forget this well at present is a lot lower in pressure then originally expected. Some twenty or more percent lower. And with the very slow increase rate of say 2psi per day or so, we could go for weeks and still be below 8K. And they have the means to backpump well into the 13K range drilling mud.
If nothing changes on the sea floor over a few more days and nothing shows up as a problem within the whole structure, then surely the extended time simply shows the real integrity of the whole structure to handle a top kill.
Though I must admit, I tend to go with what the peer scientist have suggested, the seabed is simply exhibiting some natural leakage. For all we know those little whisps and bubbles may have been coming up long before they even dropped the original drill bit into the sea. So your suggesion is reasonable.

[justa-hairyape]

If the they blew out the Macondo Well Bore and had cross talk between the Lower Macondo reservoir and a higher located reservoir that was mostly depleted, one could have speculated that as a result of this, natural seepage would increase in the area near the Macondo Well.

[Marine_Uncle]

I do as I image in my brain the two hypothetical reservours linked by channels through the vertical strata, understand your statement. And I concure fully. And not to sound negative, not intended because you said nothing to be negative about, quite the opposite. We do not have a three dimensional picture of the sub caverns within this over all geo structure.
For all we know the whole structure is permeated by numbers of horizontal narrow bands of open space where oil/gas accumulates. Sort of zebra strips in the vertical. But that does not discount what you suggest.
But I suspect. The upper crust so to speak is quite deep with mud and sands accumulated over a vast period of time sitting on top of the harder shale strata.
What does continue to seem current observations, is we see no gushing from collapsed sea bed, fissures, other then some occasional seepage. Perhaps it is a matter of time before we would see an accelerted rate of seepage.
For all we know the actual drill bore and final inserted and cemented casing may have penetrated a almost vertical cross channel between a "main lower cavity" and a "minimum upper cavity" much closer to the sea bed. But without any profiles for us to view neither can addequately address what is actually happening.
As a side note. I believe what we both question as "what are upper or lower sands", seem to refere to different horizontal cavities in the vertical axis in close proximity that are in some way interconnected via. vertical oriented channels.
At this point perhaps I push the limit as to what you two can take. I will stop before it appears I am rambling on needlessly.
Just got my second wind sort of. Off tommorow! Yeah! And the next day! Yeah!
Then I pleaded with a part timer to take my third day. Yeah! I am free! heheh. Tis late perhaps you signed off.... in any event do have a great upcoming day.

[justa-hairyape]

Along those lines and since you got time, read the article Ernie found. He pinged you to it. Post 27 in the thread below. Might have a lot of merit and perhaps we need to be on the outlook for gas seeps.

White House Press Secretary Gibbs Confirms "Ruptured Oil Well Leaking from Top"

That thread is the one where you called Gibbs a bad word.

[Marine_Uncle]

Just read it J. Thanks for the ping. I think I will keep my mouth shut until more data becomes available.