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.

[lentulusgracchus]

Someone else was talking about the possibility of some other kind of accident, but that wouldn't have brought the oil and gas to surface in a flash like that. It was the crude and gas. As my correspondent said, "blowout no doubt".

Haven't received any more info from friends today ..... I should think RigZone.com would be the best place to check for updated info. I think the chances of those 11 guys being found are about nil by now -- they're prob. all still on that rig floor -- or vaporized, cremated by now.

[lentulusgracchus]

No, no, no, no, no, no!!

BP will have had $30-40-50 million in that well when they lost it. NOBODY does stuff like that in the patch anyway; this is all serious damned money, and everyone is trying to make his division or his company pay off at the end of the year. The bottom line is the bottom line!

These are horrendously expensive enterprises and take years to bring to fruition. Every project is like rolling a big rock uphill and involves scores of people. People don't play around with this stuff, and any rig fire is a damned serious business.

Trying to see a political dimension in something like this is a major mistake. The politicking will all be in DC, where the dildo-heads dwell.

[cricket]

This is a great time to consider sabotage as a possibility. The timing is very suspicious.

Am suspicious also. . .little being said as to 'cause'; and yes, too much 'good timing' on behalf of the dark side.

[lentulusgracchus]

That’s gonna cause a helluva lot of environmental damage.

Actually, no, not necessarily.

• One, they're in the open Gulf (unlike the Santa Barbara Channel spill in 1969, where the platforms are located only a few miles from land) where the currents tend to sweep east-west.

• Two, biota in the water attack the oil and break it down, actually feeding on the crude and metabolizing it into CO₂ and water. Companies actually have to take care, through regular maintenance programs, that these organisms don't get into wells, storage tanks, and pipelines -- they can eat a lot of production!

• Three, biological activity constantly cleans up the Gulf.

A regional university once calculated that natural seeps on the bottom of the Gulf release the equivalent of an Argonaut or an Amoco Cadiz into the water column annually, and have done so for perhaps 40 or 60 million years; but biological activity cleans it all up, burps, and calls for more.

[SaveTheChief]

The key word in the headline is “fear”.

[lentulusgracchus]

In other words, a safety valve should automatically close when not signaled to stay open.

You can't do that with blowout preventers because of the serious entailed consequences of an inadvertent activation of the rams. Each BOP stack has an inflatable "bag"-type preventer called a Hydril, which is separate from the main stack. There is also a TIW valve, a kind of check valve, inside the drillpipe. Higher rated are the hydraulic ram sets, which usu. include a set of

• a) pipe rams which close on the drillpipe offering a tight seal (all rams are pressure-rated and benchmarked and absolutely massive),

• b) shear rams which can crush and cut drillpipe like it was a plastic straw, achieving a "scissors" seal after the DP separates and the drillstring drops away, and

• c) blind rams, which are just a flush-faced pair of opposed rams which, after the DP is out of the way, or when you're out-of-hole, close tightly together and offer a very tight seal.

This stuff is serious equipment, very bulky and heavy-duty.

Rams are tested religiously, and the MMS and Coast Guard sometimes come out to look over the drilling contractor's men's shoulders. This is no place to play. Blowout preventers stacks are one of the most serious pieces of safety equipment in the oil patch, and when gas comes to surface, people's lives depend on their working first time, every time.

This time, they didn't -- and the Coasties and MMS and BP are going to know why.

[ExSoldier]

Okay I had a choice of which to reply to and chose this one because I can remember how to spell TW's handle as a recipient.

On second analysis, I have to admit my tinfoil was wrapped a little too tight. That happens at times, you know.

However, I wouldn't put sabotage past a foreign government like the Chavez bunch or even China. They know all too well that our enviro-whackos are just itching to try and shut down our means of production and the Chinese are already slurping up from our fields (at the edges) at the behest of Venuezela and Cuba. One enviro disaster could impact the entire industry. Thank God the USCG so far has said that no oil is leaking up from below. If we let this stop us we're really doomed in the long run.

This should also offer an impetus to start drilling on land (ANWR) and to further the new technologies that will allow us to recover the crude from the oil shale. I gather that SHELL OIL has just perfected a means to do that and it leaves a tiny footprint. Something to do with sinking heating rods into the shale that raises the temperature to 600 degrees F at which time the oil separates and can be sucked upward. They just finished a tiny test in like Montana and the entire site measured forty feet by forty feet. It was able to draw (tiny site so tiny amount) 5,000 gallons (not barrels) a day, but it proved the technique was sound.

[Gene Eric]

Thanks for the detailed info!

I take it that once the rams are actuated the seal is permanently closed? To reopen, the rammed section needs to be replaced?

[TWfromTEXAS]

On second analysis, I have to admit my tinfoil was wrapped a little too tight.

ROFL Well sir I admire the admission.

I have no idea how one would sabotage a rig this size. God Bless

[ExSoldier]

I have no idea how one would sabotage a rig this size.

I am reminded of an old army saying (probably not unique to the army though): There are few problems that can't be solved with a suitable application of high explosives. The SEAL teams used to stealthily board those platforms just to see if they could after doing a HALO drop from 35K above and swimming to the platforms. They would exfil via a sub. I wouldn't put it past the Chinese to try something similar. They've already been responsible for HACKING us via cyber attacks on a regular basis.

[TWfromTEXAS]

OK so the Chinese come half way around the world, get on the rig, then what? How do they cause a blowout without first killing a couple of dozen people, while none of the survivors see or hear anything?

I can tell you how to sink a rig, though I will not, but have no idea how to cause a blowout without being seen. BTW I'm 4th generation oilfield trash and my grandfather was a VP of Global Marine Drilling so I have a little background in this.

[RedhairRedhair]

Tuna fishing out of Venice and on down and out Southwest Pass is still awesome.

[ExSoldier]

The Chinese don't have to come straight from China, they're all over Panama and Cuba and a few other areas. I'd have to see a rig up close to give you an idea and while I don't have any experience like you have, I DO have an ill spent youth hanging around a lot of specops guys who do those sorts of things. My high school and college buddy was just up the road in a Ranger Battalion when I was a straight leg infantry officer and those bad boys sorta adopted me. They in turn introduced me to some SEAL types and Special Forces folks.... and at the officers club and other sundry party activities, they spoke and I listened... So I'm certain it can be done. MAYBE submerged? A shaped charge that could start such an explosion? I'd have to see a detailed pic, maybe. Ask Travis McGee. HE is the expert. How about it, Travis?

[Travis McGee]

It’s an easy op. But I expect it’s a legit accident. One blew up in the North Sea about 20 years ago that made this one look like a firecracher.

[TWfromTEXAS]

Well my dear old grand dad was a Navy officer, Rice grad, helped the CIA pick up that Russian sub in the 70's, Cameron BOP salesman and VP of Global Marine. My dad served in the Army and can blow you up 10 ways with things found around the house, spent some years on rigs and has sold drilling equipment for 40 years.

I just punch computer keys but I assure you there is no way to cause a blowout, underwater, when the pipe is full of mud and or cement. This is getting foolish and no one here associated with the industry thinks it can be done.

[thackney]

That was the Piper Alpha, July 6, 1988, for all those interested.

167 men killed, two of those were crewmen of a rescue vessel.

[Travis McGee]

I saw a documentary about it. Amazing film footage and an excellent recreation of the events. A cascade of “minor” errors and faults led to disaster.

[thackney]

Piper Alpha - Deadliest Oil Rig Accident
http://home.versatel.nl/the_sims/rig/pipera.htm

[thackney]

Lots of people seem to want to find a conspiracy. Sadly, these happen all to often. They just usually are not this bad.

Oil Rig Disasters
http://home.versatel.nl/the_sims/rig/index.htm

[ExSoldier]

This is getting foolish and no one here associated with the industry thinks it can be done.

Of course I defer to your experience, but I'd suggest you read what Travis McGee has to say below. I defer to him waaaay above what anybody in any industry has to say about any special warfare military operation. Navy SEALs specialize in doing what everybody thinks is impossible. I also believe HIM when he suggests it's a legit accident. So I rest.