Posted on 08/04/2010 9:13:48 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
This is a second copy of this thread. The previous copy can be found at http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6810.
Update Wednesday Morning: BP announced that the well had reached a static condition, a 'significant milestone', and it was able to stop pumping mud into the well.
BP announced today that the MC252 well appears to have reached a static condition -- a significant milestone. The well pressure is now being controlled by the hydrostatic pressure of the drilling mud, which is the desired outcome of the static kill procedure carried out yesterday (US Central time).
Pumping of heavy drilling mud into the well from vessels on the surface began at 1500 CDT (2100 BST) on August 3, 2010 and was stopped after about eight hours of pumping. The well is now being monitored, per the agreed procedure, to ensure it remains static. Further pumping of mud may or may not be required depending on results observed during monitoring.
The Washington Post reports that everything is not over yet. A couple of comments:
"You want to make sure it's really dead, dead, dead. Don't want anything to rise out of the grave," Energy Secretary Steven Chu told The Washington Post.
"We've pretty much made this well not a threat, but we need to finish this from the bottom," Allen told WWL-TV.
Heading Out's original post below the fold.
(Excerpt) Read more at theoildrum.com ...
**********************************************
MSNBC is reporting that BP will start cementing from the top on Thursday (tomorrow).
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38556106/ns/disaster_in_the_gulf/
Getting closer to shutting this well down.
That definitely sounds like something a Nobel prize winner would think and say. What a dolt.
****************************EXCERPT***************************
From Kent Well's tech briefing today: http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/in...
So we did pump the static kill yesterday at five barrels per minute. We were able to watch as we pumped the mud in. We were able to watch the pressure continuously and gradually decline.
And these were all very encouraging signs. And then what we kept doing is we kept injecting it as five barrels a minute, injecting more of the oil that was in the casing and actually mud, and continued to inject it into the reservoir for a period of time to try to get – make sure we'd cleaned out all of the oil that we could out of the casing.
And so we pumped for a number of hours. And then as we got confident that we'd actually got the well into a static condition, we actually increased the rate up to 10 barrels a minute, and then ultimately 15 barrels a minute, and we did that to give ourselves confidence that, if we chose to go ahead with the cementing procedure, that we could actually pump at higher rates, because that will give us a more effective cement job.
So by the end of the whole process, we had injected about 2,300 barrels of mud, and a lot of that was actually designed at just cleaning out the casing and making sure that we could move forward with the cement job with confidence, if we choose to do so.
And what we – what we're doing now is, every six hours, we just inject a little more mud into the well, just to continue to give ourselves confidence that we can do that, keep our equipment live, and we're seeing a very, very static set of conditions as we continue to monitor the pressure, which is all very encouraging.
This is the Comet Kohoutek of Natural Disasters. The Obama Administration is outraged the earth cleaned itself up.
Sure looks like it. Beaches are clean and no oil in sight.
I wonder what Matt (what's his name) is having to say these days?
Thank God we had him there to tell us that! /sarc
The screaming little girl Big Media destroyed the tourist season for the Gulf. Can we go back to drilling obozo?
Pray for America
Is Halliburton going to do the cement job?
Stopping the stack leaks is good news, but if we have sea floor leaks, there is nothing that can be done about them until the Relief Well is completed. My guess is the BOP is cemented now. And this may be why they have 4 ROVs dedicated to watching the floor.
Then there is all the rest of the DoomsDay crowd....
I am sure they will find something else ...to excite every one.
I’m encouraged that his description is exactly what I thought should happen — as they pumped mud in, the pressure dropped because the mud relieved the oil pressure.
Too bad they couldn’t do this 3 months ago — I mean, they obviously could have done this 3 months ago, except they didn’t have the special cap built at the time, and they had to try less risky things first. Hindsight and all.
But it was funny that as they came to actually being able to stop the oil and kill the well, the government mostly stuck it’s nose in and tried to gum up the works.
There was no mention of how they know they got mud up into the annulus....where it was speculated the oil flow was coming from.
What we have not been shown since they started the Injectivity Test, is the base of the BOP near the wellhead. There has been an ROV there constantly. Probably all kinds of stuff bleeding out down there.
Kent always leaves out the important details. They had to initially increase the internal pressure of the BOP. The pumps they used were limited to 8,000 PSI maximum. They did not want an increase beyond 1,000 PSI. Fluid cannot be compressed. No way around increasing the pressure to get the kill mud into the assembly. And they blew out a new leak during the short increased pressure time frame. Top of BOP. It was only after a period of increased pressure, that the internal pressure would drop as mud displaced the oil/gas. So yes, the drop in pressure occurred just like everyone expected.
Fluid cannot be compressed, but the wellpipe isn’t sealed, and the pressure is due to methane gas which can be compressed.
They did have to “increase” pressure slightly, to pump the oil into the well. a 5 gallon flow hardly increased the presssure though, and would almost immediately start dropping the pressure as heavier mud pushed oil back into the deposit.
Technically, they could do this without increasing pressure at all (not practically though). Mud at 1-psi higher pressure than the well would flow into the well, and start dropping the wellhead pressure.
My previous post was in response to the Matt Simmons post that said they’d have to increase pressure by thousands of psi to get the mud in, and the wellhead would blow up.
I also didn’t see any indication of a “blow out” of a new leak. Just a little more seepage, and I wonder if they didn’t open something up just a bit to help get the mud into the pipe to start.
Of course, I guess I’m more tolerant of these little tiny leaks, as most of my plumbing seems to do that from time to time.
*********************************EXCERPT********************************************
The lawsuit claims that the company failed to use an appropriate number of centralizers (attachments that go around the casing as it is being lowered into the well to keep the casing in the center of the borehole),
Well now they will have a problem with that statement as I believe BP made that decision.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.