BP's Deepwater Oil Spill - Cementing the Well - and Open Thread

The Oil Drum ^ | August 5, 2010 - 10:25am | Heading Out

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The Deepwater well has now reached a point where the mud inside the well is applying enough weight to the fluid in the formation that the flow of fluid, when such exists, is now from the well back into the rock. The well is sufficiently secure that, just before 7 pm CST Wednesday, Admiral Allen issued the following press release:

Based on the successful completion of the static kill procedure and a positive evaluation of the test results, I have authorized BP to cement its damaged well. I made it clear that implementation of this procedure shall in no way delay the completion of the relief well.

In his press conference Wednesday, Kent Wells described the steps to kill the well, and what is currently happening as the work moves toward sealing the well.

The crew is now running the drill pipe within the relief well, but must first run a test of the Blow-out Preventer (BOP). There is a regulation, which the other drilling rig did not follow earlier in the process, that is, no doubt, now being practiced.

The Transocean Development Driller II (DD II) working for BP, received one INC (Incidence of Non-Compliance) because it had not alternated between control stations for BOP testing. MMS regulations require that the regular 14-day BOP tests alternate between the BOP station on the rig floor and the remote station located at another site on the rig. On the DD II they conducted the BOP pressure testing only from the driller’s control station for the last two tests. They did perform function testing on the remote station, but the pressure testing was only performed using the driller’s station. MMS has ordered the rig to alternate control stations in the future. . . . . . in addition, as a condition of its drilling permit, the rig will be required to conduct increased testing of the BOP stack and Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) intervention both on the rig and on the seabed.

I presume that it is this scheduled BOP test that is currently being planned. After it is over then the excess cement that is still in the casing will be drilled out. This will allow instruments to then move over the full length of the injected cement to ensure that the cement was placed properly (using a cement bond log – something that was controversially not done by Schlumberger before the well failure of the Deepwater Horizon). In addition there will be a leakoff test, to test the strength of the surrounding rock.

Simplistically, the pressure in the bottom of the well is slowly increased until the fluid in the well starts to penetrate the rock, shown when the pressure no longer steadily increases as fluid is added. This is then used to determine the weight of the mud that will then be used to drill the last section of the well (to ensure that the well pressure isn’t high enough to reach that pressure that will fracture the rock, and lose fluid to the formation).

With that in hand the well will start the short advances, then be surveyed, then advance again, to ensure that the relief well remains on target to hit the original well, first along the annulus, and then to penetrate through the production casing to allow a cement seal of the whole bottom section of the well.

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[Marine_Uncle]

Been off the boards for two days. Looks like they are not going to find any oil. People seemed to keep forgetting that the oil is going to biodegrade regardless of how thick it's column may be or how dispersed in volume conversely. What is still in the gulf will be no more perhaps in less then two or three months.
Meanwhile the GOM sea floor shall continue what it has done for a long time... slowly leak methane and oil.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Ugly scorecard ....but looks true.

man I am weary of all this ..tried to focus on today's Oil Drum and couldn't at all.

They seem to have put a lot of cement down the hole.

I have spent a lot of time this week waiting in lines at the DMV...what a crowd.

[justa-hairyape]

Meanwhile the GOM sea floor shall continue what it has done for a long time... slowly leak methane and oil.

The ROV's that are supposed to be monitoring the sea floor basically park on the same exact spot or rise and move a few feet. Some have been in the same spot for a couple of days. If we do see a new oil seep appear, will probably shock the heck out of them. They should be doing systematic grid searches within a mile to 1 1/2 mile radius from the well. They did wide searches a few weeks ago and found some real interesting stuff.

[justa-hairyape]

Lots of cement ? They must be having some interesting leaks down at the wellhead, but are not willing to display them to the public. Oh well. Wonder if those old gas leaks are still occurring ?

[Marine_Uncle]

I too have become a bit weary of the whole thing as probably many. The past few days due to mental and physical tiredness due to hard work shifts just did not have the energy to view anything here or elsewhere for that matter. At least they meet their objective in sealing the well.
But BP gave the Obama administration and goons like Pelosi the perfect opportunity to now further control the oil/gas industry. We can only groan as to where this all will eventually lead from the regulation stand point.