Posted on 05/16/2010 12:35:58 PM PDT by Ready4Freddy
HOUSTON - Reporting its first success in containing the massive Gulf oil leak nearly a month after it started, BP on Sunday said oil and natural gas were flowing via a mile-long pipe to a ship at the surface.
"So far it's working extremely well," BP Senior Executive Vice President Kent Wells said of the strategy of inserting a 4-inch tube into the 21-inch riser, a pipe in the seafloor from where the largest leak is spewing.
"We're very slowly increasing the rate" to get more oil and natural gas up, he told reporters. "We will just learn as we go with this approach." Siphoning oil from a mile down had never before been successful.
It's not clear how much of the overall leak is being captured, Wells said, but that should be known in the next day or two.
In any case, the tube is only an interim strategy until the well head can be capped. That requires drilling a second well to relieve pressure on the leaking well a process that has started but which is expected to take at least two months.
Glitch a day earlier
On Saturday, the technique was attempted for the first time. Natural gas was siphoned out and then burned off when it got to the surface. Oil also entered the tube but a glitch stopped the strategy before any oil could make it all the way to the surface.
The glitch happened when engineers, via the robotic submarines, tried to connect two pieces of equipment a mile below the water's surface.
BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said one piece of equipment, called the framework, had to be brought to the water's surface so that adjustments could be made to where it fits with the long tube that connects...
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Not too bad, really. If the well is under control (think heavy mud, relief well,) they can set a plug or two and if there is a decent cenent job around the casing, they'll be good to go. People nipple down BOPs on a regular basis and move them to the next well while production equipment is installed on the wellhead. A workover rig can drill out the plug after the BOP has been replaced (with production pressure control equipment).
I don’t think BP is serious about plugging this leak. I mean, they never once tried duct tape.
No kidding. If they just took a deep breath and did the math:
5000 bbl*$80/BBL=$400,000.00 per DAY going into the water, not to mention the cleanup costs and whatever other liabilities they get stuck with.
No one in the oil industry wants a trainwreck. We get enough bad press as it is. It's a real pain when even a little of that is actually deserved.
Nice to know they weren’t quoting Biden.
just heard from one down in Panhandle FL on beach who says all OK - just like always - going fishing tomorrow
DO this would be within the control of the US as we control 200 nautical miles offshore as an Exclusive Economic Zone. This EEZ applies around the world. The feds put areas up for bid within our EEZ and allot rights to those selected as bid winners.
Are you saying that the entities I mentioned have been winning bids? It would seem like it wouldn’t it.
Yikes...
But the Obamarama Admin will declare BP "Too Big to Fail" and direct the US taxpayer to pay the cost of the cleanup. Obamarama will do this to keep his BP money train going.
60 minutes playing really good interview right now.... about damage to the blow out preventer etc.
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Yeah, right, I suppose you think its in a lockbox, like social security...
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Big OLD lockbox, hidden in one of Michelle Obama’s shoeboxes!
Please watch this evening’s 60 Minutes. BP has a lot of explaining to do!
What “egregious error” was made?
did bozo go to TN ?
I saw the wreck in TN and it reminded me of katrina to a small point but hardly heard much about it.
there was no looting as far as I know , country stars and others have donated a lot of money for the rebuilding but has bozo done anything or even gone there is my question
Not sure who has won bids in past allocations but here are a couple of stories that maybe of interest. BP, Shell, Conoco and others are all there along with others I’m sure.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/03/19/gulf-oil-lease-business-energy-auction.html
That's the stupidest piece of demogogic dog crap you've ever posted, and you've posted some doozies over the years.
When did you sign up for the Obama Jungen?
This mentality of raking companies engaged in high risk work is ridiculous. We have become, and are raising a nation of weinerschitzels who expect a riskless existence. We are screwing ourselves as a society with all the precaution. We need risk takers and innovators, but we just kill the businesses and companies who take the risks when something goes wrong. God bless the risk takers and innovators, including the rig workers who paid the ultimate price in this case for our progress. God have mercy on and bring wisdom to the handwringers and worriers. Let them appreciate the sacrifices made for their way of life. Please also let them understand the opportunity costs of their actions.
BP is limited to $75 million in damages . That is fine. Congress limited liability so free enterprise companies would drill. We want them to drill. The ocean eats that oil all gone after 59 days. Always has -always will. In world war II there were 22.000 sunken vessels — all full of oil. All gone. The Bay on Campeche was 7 times bigger that this little nothing spill. All gone. Just get the oil in my SUV cheap. That is what I want. Quit complaining.
I don’t know the particulars regarding the spill trust fund but I believe it to be critically important to follow the letter of the law regarding disbursements from it. If the existing criteria is not followed then it is little more than a slush fund for politicians to play with.
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