[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Not sure but some of this discussion today may be new today.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

Thanks for posting this EatB!

[Moonman62]

The good news is that, in this case, the relief well does not, apparently, need to intersect the well exactly--it just needs to be close. Once the relief well penetrates the reservoir, enough mud can be pumped to hopefully overcome flowing pressure and kill the well.

My understanding is that the relief well intersects and cuts into the pipe, it doesn't go into the reservoir.

[justa-hairyape]

Here are some videos from the past 24 hours showing the leak rates at two of the seals. Have not seen the leak rate from the old BOP leaking seal in quite a few days. There has been an ROV at the base of the BOP monitoring gas leaking for over 24 hours straight now. There appears to be at least 3 leaking points. One is shown in the video. The leak at the seal in the 3 ram stack is now a serious leak. You would not want you car to be leaking oil at that rate. Expand the Youtube video description for additional details.

Cleaning the 3 Ram Stack Seal Leak (3 minutes)

3 Ram Stack Fast Leak Rate (35 seconds)

3 Ram Stack Fast Leak Rate Closeup (2 minutes)

BOP Pipe Leak Rate (35 seconds)

[justa-hairyape]

The Oil Drum thread has videos of oil seeps linked into the thread, but they look fake. Personally recorded a small oil leak on Wednesday. Did not get excited about the leak because it was impossible to tell if the oil was leaking from the ground or from the ROV itself. Do not know if it is oil, but is has a dark color. Posted here just for informational purposes. Oil leak on right lower side of video.

Oil Seep Leaks from Ground or ROV ?

[CharlesWayneCT]

I still disagree with the technical point about top kill and pressure.

There is pressure in the well now, a static pressure because the well is sealed. It is about 7000 psi. That is the limit the resevoir is able to exert through the weight of the oil from 18,000 feet to 5000 feet. Someone has calculated what this puts the pressure at the resevoir to be, I can’t find it so lets just pick a number, like 12,000 psi (which would be true if the oil in the well weighed 5000 pounds per square inch of pipe diameter, I think).

If I now want to push mud into the static well at the top, I need only to exert slightly over 7000 psi at the connection, and mud will begin to flow into the pipe. Now, that mud will be heavier than the oil, and will begin to sink. Not very fast, but it will sink.

But the mud will also displace oil back into the resevoir. How? Because first, when I put mud into the pipe, since fluids are incompressable, oil must go out the bottom. And I can do that with about 7000 psi of pressure, because the mud that I trickle in is heavier than the oil I displace, which actually helps LOWER the pressure at the well head.

(I am ignoring the fact that there is gas in the line, and that gas is compressable; I ignore it because to the degree we simply compress the gas in the well, we also add a lot MORE weight to the stack, and lower the pressure at the top of the well by that much more).

After a short period of time, we can pump more mud into the top, because the pressure will drop. Or more likely, as we exert a constant pressure of 7000 psi, mud will flow faster and faster as the heavy mud displaces the oil back into the resevoir.

So I don’t see this as a big risk of blowout, nor do I see any reason there needs to be an oil flow to make it work.

Moreso, I don’t think the info on the casing pressure is valid. Because if the pressure is 7000 psi at the top of the well, and that is just at the max pressure for the casings, well the pressure is higher a thousand feet lower, and even higher as you move down more, and it’s the same casings.