BP's Deepwater Oil Spill - After the Storm - and Open Thread

The Oil Drum ^ | July 26, 2010 - 10:25am | Heading Out

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The “Bonnie” storm has passed, and the different vessels are not only returned to the site, but are already making progress in returning to operations. As Admiral Allen noted on Sunday

DDIII is now running the riser pipe down. They have 67 joints to complete, they've done 39 of those as of about 10:30 Central Daylight time this morning, need about five more hours to do that. They are planning to latch on to the well around midnight tonight. Development Driller II which was – had drill – was involved in drilling the backup well is returning to site and will start running their riser today.

Q4000 is inspecting the yellow pad, that is the control device that's placed subsea to operate the hydraulics. They replaced the valve on that and they plan to install it later on today and then they will begin preparations for the static kill operations.

He also noted that the pressure in the well has now risen to just over 6,900 psi, while the temperature at the BOP remains at 40 deg – suggesting no flow and that well integrity is apparent. The storm has, however, dispersed and moved the oil, and they are resurveying to find where the threats now lie.

He then gave the current anticipated time line for the kill of the well.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

More on specifics of the Kill effort at the TOD link.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

fyi

[screaminsunshine]

They will plug the spill and fire the CEO blame everything on him and bail out on the claims. I bet Obama has already been paid off.

[D-fendr]

the pressure in the well has now risen to just over 6,900 psi… suggesting no flow and that well integrity is apparent.

I thought 8,000 psi was the lowest psi that would "suggest" integrity?

[UCANSEE2]

Thank you for hosting the thread.

[UCANSEE2]

I thought 8,000 psi was the lowest psi that would "suggest" integrity?

That was just a guess. Now they have a new guess.

[Orange1998]

We about to see if Matt Simmons theory is correct.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Interesting subthread on the plumes and Simmons:

snakehead on July 26, 2010 - 12:18pm

******************************EXCERPT****************************************

Interesting series of posts at ZeroHedge, dated today.

I am on scene on one of the largest oceanographic research vessels working in the GOM. I am not being paid by NOAA or BP. This is a factual statement: Beyond 20 NM from the wellhead we have not detected subsurface oil at any depth in concentrations above 20PPM, beyond 40NM we have not detected any oil above 2PPM that was associated with Deepwater Horizon. We have seen the usual seep concentrations around Vioska Knoll, Green Canyon, etc.

Just wanted to add that out of tens of thousands of samples, the positive hits are coming from extremely limited areas "Plumes" which are measured in tens and perhaps hundreds of meters, not in miles. I have access to all of the raw and preliminary data coming in from 8 of the vessels sampling for the SMU (Subsurface Monitoring Unit)

and in response to a request for "CDOM flouresence in relation to DO2 and the date your vessel departed/returned along with its MMSI",

I am not authorized to be releasing this info, it is all going to litigation. I'll cut and paste some date on determination of crude concentrations via CDOM and Dissolved Oxygen if it would make you feel any better.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Discussion on the leaks and whether there is evidence of stuff coming up from the seafloor on today’s thread.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Looked at Sero Hedge for today ....couldn't find comments at TOD of post #8.

May be in the comments,...don't know how to work thru those.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ZeroHedge ......typo corrected...

[corkoman]

where did all the oil go?

There were reports that before Bonnie the oil skimmers had trouble finding plumes. Where did it all go?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Just posted this as a separate thread:

Matthew Simmons: Lightning Rod for Gulf Oil Controversy

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Damn good question...maybe there wasn't that much.

See post #13.

[justa-hairyape]

Thanks for the heads up. Will be busy for a few hours. BTW - What we thought was a new BOP is a new hydraulics control panel. It is now located near the Macondo BOP. This morning we had a Clathrate Storm at the BOP. Videos to follow. Will have to check out the Drum tonight.

[abb]

There were reports that before Bonnie the oil skimmers had trouble finding plumes. Where did it all go?

Indeed, where? The networks and the NY Times told us it covered the entire GOM from Key West to Corpus Christi to a depth of thousands of feet. The entire basin would be a biological desert for thousands of years, they said.

Something ain't adding up!

[UCANSEE2]

I would say that currently, there is no more oil coming up from the seafloor in the Gulf of Mexico, than there has been for 50 million years.

[UCANSEE2]

There were reports that before Bonnie the oil skimmers had trouble finding plumes. Where did it all go?

The Gulf of Mexico is pretty big. This 'spill' wasn't that big.

One thing is for sure, there ought to be less of a MOSQUITO problem in the GULF this year.

[UCANSEE2]

What we thought was a new BOP is a new hydraulics control panel.

'WE'? You gotta mouse in your pocket or something?

: )

[UCANSEE2]

You mean the theory that there is a huge gusher of oil coming out of the oceanfloor in the GOM somewhere else?