Crews fear oil rig will spill 336,000 gallons a day

HOUSTON CHRONICLE ^ | April 22, 2010, 9:58PM | MATTHEW TRESAUGUE

[KDD]

A drilling rig that burned for more than a day before sinking Thursday has fouled Gulf of Mexico waters with a potentially major spill of crude oil, officials said. The collapse of the oil rig could disgorge up to 336,000 gallons of crude a day into waters about 40 miles off the Louisiana coast. U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry said the sunken rig, the Deepwater Horizon, increased the threat for environmental damage, which previously appeared minimal. With new challenges from the collapsed rig, a growing assemblage of cleanup crews began to work in the area, hoping to stop the oil before the spill were to reach the shore.

Meteorologists predicted a change in the Gulf's current today that would push the oil toward the Louisiana and Mississippi coastlines. But Landry said the spill isn't expected to reach the coast. “We have the ability to keep it offshore,” she said. BP, the oil company that leased the offshore rig, said it had mobilized four aircraft that can spread chemicals to break up the oil and 32 vessels that can recover more than 171,000 barrels of oil a day from the surface. BP officials also expected to have a million feet of boom in place to help contain the spill by today. “We have contingency plans in place to respond to any anticipated situation, and the full resources of BP are being mobilized to implement those plans,” said David Rainey, vice president of Gulf exploration for BP. Even then, federal and BP officials said it wasn't clear whether oil was flowing from the well after the platform sank because they didn't know what was happening underwater.

[razorback-bert]

Gas blow out while tripping at 3300 feet in the Book Cliffs of Utah.

[razorback-bert]

Status update 3rd of may:

BP is looking at installing a new BOP on top of the existing well, which could then be used to shut the well, BP executive Bob Fryar said.

Fryar normally heads BP offshore exploration operations in Angola.
Sometime in the next three days, BP will try to install a meter to gauge the pressure on the lower marine riser package (LMRP), which sits on top of the existing BOP, to see if it might be possible to install a new BOP on top.

If pressures are not too high, Fryar said crews could shear off the broken riser and LMRP unit and then “stab” or stack a second BOP unit on top of the original BOP.

The new BOP is already on board the Transocean drillship Discoverer Enterprise, which is believed to be on location.

[Bigun]

It could have been any number of things TW but as I say the photos of the rig I have in my possession which were taken from a an on scene work boat right after the explosion and fire do not indicate any such incident.

[Bigun]

Thanks for the update my friend!

That is sure worth a try!

[TWfromTEXAS]

Thanks for the info.

[TWfromTEXAS]

I know the Enterprise is in the Gulf, but if this rig is going to drill the relief well, all attempts to use it's BOP to control the well will add to the 90 days needed to drill a relief well if the effort doesn't work.

[lentulusgracchus]

I lost a reallllllly long post to you guys about an hour ago when my *********** OS got its shoelaces tied together and decided to ********** crash right in the middle of posting ..... I could see the post, right in front of me, but popups wouldn't let me touch it, all I got was this string of CLOSE/IGNORE GUI's and IGNORE wouldn't work.

GOD I hate Bill ******* Gates!!!!

What I was putting up was a heavily edited (ergo readable) grep-and-copy of the text at this annoyingly dark and superwidescreen-my-computer-is-so-new-and-bad fishermen's website populated by really young guys.

Site's here, go see, I'm not going to **** with all that **** again.

Screw it.

http://www.mudinmyblood.net/forum/showthread.php?t=6104

**** Bill Gates.

[TWfromTEXAS]

If this guy is telling the truth, and he seems to be, it points right at an uncontrolled blowout. When he says water was coming from all the pipes I suspect he saw drilling mud being blown out.

I hope someday we know why the damn BOP failed.

Thank lg, great site.

[Bigun]

I wonder if this young man and his fishing buddies realize how close they came to meeting their maker? From reading this it sure doesn’t sound like it to me!

Anyway, if this is an accurate description there is NO doubt any longer! The well swallowed the drilling fluid in the bore and the rest is history.

[meyer]

Brown (”good job, Brownie”) was on Cavuto a few minutes ago talking about the government response to this. He slammed Obambi and the media, and spoke briefly about his own mistakes. One thing he regretted was not speaking up - he said he’d have been fired anyway, but would have gotten his word out.

He did well.

[lentulusgracchus]

They'll bring a barge or another rig to work right on top of the location, the relief well will probably be spudded 1500' away more or less.

I'm sure they won't begrudge the dayrates on additional equipment, 5,000 bbl/day at $80/bbl, yeah, that's what they're losing (more, actually, as the pressure cones around the blowout take-point in the reservoir, which will reduce ultimate recovery %'s throughout the reservoir).

[lentulusgracchus]

the photos of the rig I have in my possession which were taken from a an on scene work boat right after the explosion

Are those the ones that have been circulating around the Net via e-mail?

If you have other pix from an on-scene eyewitness, he needs to send them in.

[lentulusgracchus]

....I'm saying it's hard to cause a blowout when drilling, without anyone knowing.

The examples I gave of "sneaky" blowouts -- Ixtoc and Santa Barbara -- had different causes and pathways, but you don't always get the warning pit-volume gains when you're losing control of a well. Underground blowout zone-to-zone behind pipe is an example; and Santa Barbara was a behind-pipe blowout that came to surface outside the casing strings.

Ixtoc blowout was gas-cut oil-base mud, sneaky, dangerous, and fast -- like this one! If BP was using water-base mud, then that scenario's off the table.

[TWfromTEXAS]

I think you prove my point. No one can cause these to happen, they just do. No explosive and the only man made ways I know of, lighten the mud etc, would be noted by someone. The mud man, driller, tool pusher, crane operator, guy sneaking a smoke under the mud pit ;-0, someone other than the guy causing it would notice.

[lentulusgracchus]

I wonder if this young man and his fishing buddies realize how close they came to meeting their maker?

Sounded like one guy knew something about it, but our intrepid fishing-report cub reporter had no clue.

I keep wondering why he said "water" not "mud" -- they look different. And the stinging in the eyes -- if the well was full of clear completion fluid (CaCl, CaBr₂, various other brines), that could account for it. 'Course, he wouldn't have smelled gas. Oil or condensate, yes, ethane and propane, no.

He came real close! I ought to send him a note somehow ...... "Hey, Darwin ...."

[lentulusgracchus]

This just in by e-mail passed along by a geologist acquaintance:

Interview Mark Levin with an engineer who was on board:

http://www.marklevinshow.com/article.asp?id=1790422

Riser mud was being displaced with seawater (typical pre-completion, pre-temp ab'dm't T/A procedure); Halliburton was rigged down and gone for 20 hours, cement presumably cured in that time.

[Bigun]

Everything, and I DO mean everything “James” said in that interview tends, at least to my mind, confirm my earlier stated theory. Especially in light of the operations taking place after the liner testing.

[razorback-bert]

Great find and they are lucky there was someone on board that knew what was happening.

[razorback-bert]

Of interest:

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/05/fire_boom_oil_spill_raines.html

[TWfromTEXAS]

GREAT, the feds screw it up again - AGAIN!