BP's Deepwater Oil Spill - Clearing the Relief Well to Restart - and Open Thread

The Oil Drum ^ | July 28, 2010 - 10:35am | Heading Out

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

This thread is being closed. Please comment on http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6789.

The work in the Gulf that is moving toward a more permanent solution to the leaking well beyond the current cap on the well is moving forward at a slow and cautionary pace. In his briefing at 2 pm Tuesday afternoon, Admiral Allen noted that the riser has now been connected between the Development Driller III and the BOP on the relief well. When that pipe is put into place it is full of seawater, and for a variety of reasons it is best that this is replaced with drilling mud of the required density before proceeding any further. (You may remember that it was the reverse of this process that led, in part, to the Deepwater Horizon disaster). Once this process was completed, then the pressure holding the packer in the well so that it sealed against the walls of the well, has been released.

This allows flow down the drill pipe in the well, and then back up through the gap between the drill pipe and the steel and concrete casing of the well that is known as the liner. This gap that the mud will flow through is known as the annulus, and mud will be pumped down the pipe and up the annulus in a process known as circulation, which, because the mud will leave the drill pipe at the bottom of the well is known as “bottoms up.” According to Mr Wells in his later brief, once everyone is sure that the well is in good condition, they will pull the packer. This will likely occur tomorrow, and once that is out of the way and the well recleaned, .....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Numerous discussions going...the Firefighting abilities of the Coast Guard and manpads in Afghanistan...but this subthread is news specific to investigation:

Criminal probe of oil spill to focus on 3 firms and their ties to regulators

A team of federal investigators known as the "BP squad" is assembling in New Orleans to conduct a wide-ranging criminal probe that will focus on at least three companies and examine whether their cozy relations with federal regulators contributed to the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, according to law enforcement and other sources.

The squad at the FBI offices includes investigators from the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard and other federal agencies, the sources said. In addition to BP, the firms at the center of the inquiry are Transocean, which leased the Deepwater Horizon rig to BP, and engineering giant Halliburton, which had finished cementing the well only 20 hours before the rig exploded April 20, sources said.

While it was known that investigators are examining potential violations of environmental laws, it is now clear that they are also looking into whether company officials made false statements to regulators, obstructed justice or falsified test results for devices such as the rig's failed blowout preventer. It is unclear whether any such evidence has surfaced.

[Texas Fossil]

Criminal Probe of 3 firms?

Obozo’s real intent is to justify shut-down and nationalization of the oil industry, like all Marxist/Commie/Dictators. They create nothing only steal and destroy. Their worst destruction is that of the Human Will.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

And this subthread gets into the well killing:

ThorsHammer on July 28, 2010 - 12:54pm

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Can someone explain this? I was under the impression that for a proper bottom kill, there needed to be somewhere up-pipe for the stuff in the well-bore to go. Not only opening the valves on the new BOP, but maybe even some "sucking" by connections to the new BOP to "encourage" the oil to move up and out. Then the injecta at the bottom would have somewhere to go up-pipe as far as they wanted. So now if they do the top kill first - how is that supposed to work?

[Marine_Uncle]

I believe it is correct to state that from the very beginning of this accident, it was made clear that criminal investigations would proceed. I would find it weird if it where not the case.
If no one is found guilty so be it. Then just very sloppy and greedy actions lead to this terrible event.
Lives where lost. BP had one hell of a terrible track record regarding safety.

[Marine_Uncle]

If the top kill is performed then I believe the answer is there is no need for the bottom kill to pump mud any further then where it encounters the intercept point in the main well, which then obviously would be filled with cmt at that point. In other words. Just fill in the relieve well bore with mud ...go through the motions of then extracting the mud and filling the casements, RW bore with cmt.

[justa-hairyape]

Posted these video links earlier today, but wanted to post them to one of the official BP Drum threads. Yesterday BP lowered a collar and attached it to the top of a drill pipe casing assembly in the ground near the Macondo. The process took about 1/2 hour and was very interesting to watch. Here are the links to the pulling procedure and the Oil Drum thread discussion of the process..

Pulling a Pipe Assembly from Ground Part 1 (8 minutes)

Pulling a Pipe Assembly from Ground Part 2 (8 minutes)

Pulling a Pipe Assembly from Ground Part 3 (8 minutes)

Pulling a Pipe Assembly from Ground Part 4 (3 minutes)

Oil Drum Pipe Pulling Discussions

First question is what is the white plaster material on the outside of the casing ? Is that the drill cement ?

Second question is why on earth would they pull a couple of hundred feet of drill casing assembly out of the ground in an area where they are also running sonar soundings looking for leaks ? Would think that if they really are concerned about sea floor leaks, they would not intentionally make a hole in the ground a couple of hundred feet deep. Something is not quite right about this procedure.

[justa-hairyape]

Here is the Kent Wells Techincal Update done 6 dyas after they installed the Sealing Cap. This shows what the plans were for the kill process.

Kent Wells July 21st Technical Update

But then I read on the Oil Drum that the procedure would be reversed. First relief then top ?

[Marine_Uncle]

Thanks for the URL’s. I will check them out now.

[Smokin' Joe]

...or falsified test results for devices such as the rig's failed blowout preventer.

I figure you saw the image with the two (apparently) cut off sections of drill pipe in the riser. No BOP will shear or seal around two joints of drill pipe in the hole. That may be a moot point entirely.

Were they still displacing or were they tripping out when it blew?

[Marine_Uncle]

"But then I read on the Oil Drum that the procedure would be reversed. First relief then top ?"
It could be as simple as all key players now agree either action coming first does not really pose any more a potential problem then the other way around.
Surely. BP at this stage does not want to be seen as screwing the pooch.

[Marine_Uncle]

On the contrary. It could make perfect sense to continue sonar mapping as they are pulling out the drilling pipe. If they find any seepage occur within any given strata horizontally, then it could be indicative there are reasons to believe there is seepage within the sub layers. If nothing changes as the pipe is pulled out and nothing comes to the surface it is a good sign things are stable within the underlining strata.

[justa-hairyape]

I watched the whole process of pulling the pipe, the ROV never went back to even check the empty hole for visible signs of leakage. All it cared about was the pipe assembly. There are only two explanations that I can see.

BP could care less about sea floor leaking.

The sea floor is already leaking and another 200 foot hole wont make much difference.

At any rate someone needs to ask them why they did that.

[Marine_Uncle]

They pulled the pipe out so that they can cement that section of drill hole. Then they redrill and move down to the last part where they will intercept the main well bore. That was part of the plan all along.