Posted on 08/04/2010 1:00:42 AM PDT by Liberty Valance
The "static kill" procedure to permanently plug the runaway oil well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico achieved the "desired outcome," BP said Wednesday.
"The well pressure is now being controlled by the hydrostatic pressure of the drilling mud, the desired outcome of the static kill procedure," the company said in a statement.
The British oil giant described the news as a "significant milestone."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Aug 3: An employee sits in the bridge of the Helix Q4000 as it performs the 'static kill' operation at the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
The sucker’s dead. Now to drive a stake through its heart...
Meanwhile, obama’s illegal drilling moratorium has already done orders of magnitude more damage than the spill. And it continues to...
So they plugged it with a shaft full of liquid glop. What keeps the glop and the oil exactly balanced, so that the glop doesn’t fall down into the underground pool of oil, or else get pushed out by the oil? I would have expected a plug made of something solid that clings to the sides of the shaft and cannot move.
Glop? Let’s all hope that glop was gov’t bureaucrats. ;o)
August 3rd 2010. 8:51 PM PST. Skandi 1 ROV
Leak during Injectivity Test Top BOP Back Lighted (1 minute)
August 3rd 2010. 10:50 PM PST. Skandi 1 ROV
Leak during Injectivity Test Top BOP Front lighted (1 1/2 minutes)
Density and weight. Create equalized pressure. Oil can not penetrate the mud and it is heavier than oil.Now all they have to do is put the cement doen with an extruder and it is plugged fro good...Yay!
But can the mud penetrate the oil. If the mud plug is a bit too heavy it will slide down the shaft, until it reaches the underground pocket of oil and falls to the bottom of that. Then the oil will rush back up the shaft.
Nope the mud can not. It can not mix with oil and is too dense and heavier. It seals the pipe and forces the oil back down the hole till there is enough weight to equalize the pressure coming up.
Looks like it is leaking a mix now of oil, gas and mud. They must be hoping the mud will eventually leak through the busted seals and plug them up. The main problem is that they had to increase the pressure up to probably 8,000 PSI to get the mud into the well head, that blew out another seal and probably opened up the two previously busted seals even wider. If they lose the mud now, gonna be leaking oil real bad through the seals.
Good morning to Morgan City!
The following is a technical update video from BP, dated 07/21/10, that shows the process. It's about 11 1/2 minutes long. I hope you have sufficient band width to access it, if not you'll just have to trust me.
http://bp.concerts.com/gom/kentwellstechupdate_072110a.htm
Various audio only updates plus transcripts in .pdf format subsequent to 7/21/10 are available here.
http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9034442&contentId=7063846
This assumes the pressure in the oil pocket never changes and can be exactly matched with mud pressure due to mud weight. If there’s a little too much mud, and/or something decreases the pressure of the oil in the pocket (geothermal variation?) the mud-oil interface would go sliding down the shaft.
August 4th 2010. 1:32 AM PST Skandi 1 ROV
New Leak from Top Kill Note Possible Drilling Mud Leak at Start (48 seconds)
OK, now it makes sense. They are only looking to the mud for a temporary plug, not to do the final job of sealing up the well.
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