Posted on 05/24/2010 7:56:01 PM PDT by mojitojoe
BP oil leak: Fallen Deepwater Horizon was tapping second largest oil deposit in the world
If there is a single aspect to the dangers of the BP oil leak, it lies in the question CEO Tony Hayward and other BP executives have been avoiding since the first drop of oil went rogue: How much oil is leaking?
The real answer is - more than anyone wants to admit, because the well holds enough oil to make Saudi Arabian drillers jealous.
The oil field the Deepwater Horizon had tapped is said to be the second largest deposit in the world. Viewzone.com reports, “The site covers an estimated 25,000 square miles, extending from the inlands of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Texas. “
The oil deposit is so large, it could produce 500,000 barrels of a day for more than a decade.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
Good one, Sheila:
If the notion of saying bad words bothers you, or if you are trying to explain what those letters spell-out to your kids, FUBO can mean something like this; “Fed Up By Obama”, or “Forget U Barack Obama”.
For the rest of us who are too angry for such polite rhetoric and for those of us from NY who tend to speak “french” a bit more, I think you can figure out what the FU in FUBO stands for...
http://www.fubowear.com/servlet/the-template/fubomeaning/Page
Anadarko has a quarter of the well and a Japanese company owns 10%. I believe their name is Mitsui. BP owns 65% but since they are the operator, they are all you hear about. The Gulf has plenty of other companies from around the world, mainly Europeans but some Chinese.
There have been tarballs in the Gulf since the beginning of time. This oil is high gravity and likely not the source of the tarballs.
It sure seems as if they are taking a little more time to get as many ducks in a row as possible. (I know everyone is impatient, but considering this could cut a couple months off the time to control the well, I'm sure they want as much in their favor as possible).
I won't make odds on it, but will just say it is another possibility which has a reasonable chance to work, and one which does not remove other options from play.
Before the Ixtoc 1 was brought under control, (as I recall) a mixture of iron balls and lead shot was pumped into the wellbore to slow it down (after months of blowing out).
This one is a mess, but it doesn't seem as bad as the Ixtoc as wild wells go.
That doesn't mean it isn't one heck of a mess, or that it isn't causing damage, just that there seems to be a better handle on what is needed where. Chalk some of that up to the monitoring system and computer/communication advances of the last three decades.
And no, I haven't forgotten about the 11 hands lost, either.
The oil is not at 35,000 psi. If it is a normal pressured reservoir (common in the Gulf), it is .465 psi/ft or 7900 psi of bottom hole pressure. If it is geopressured, it would be up to 17,000 psi.
Because it’s not true. I’ve been in the oil business for 30+ years and I’ve never seen so much monumental ignorance and misinformation pumped out as has been associated with this event. Not the world’s second largest deposit, not the tenth largest deposit, not in the top hundred from what I’ve seen so far. Don’t fall for the hype, the source is not credible.
You stay off of the crest as that is likely the gas cap.
This is complete and total BS. Mississippi Block 252 was never reported to be a large size compared to recent Tiber and others. No investor company ever holds back if they have any data to claim boosted reserves and inflate their stock price.
Considering the fire booms were a Federal thing, you are probably right. (I wonder where that money went).
Because no one drilled there before?
Remember, the well is a widcat, but also keep in mind that the extent of the formation is not necessarily the same as the extent of the reservoir involved here. Productive areas may be spread out and relatively small within the formation. It is likely that all our offshore resources would go a very long way to free us from the yoke of imported oil if we were allowed to develop them.
OK, “stupid question” time ... What’s a “nobel spinner”?
His writeup makes sense.
I’ve seen some photos of the caverns left after underground nuclear explosions, and am less-than-convinced one of those would seal the well.
I’m even less enthusiastic, though, about the idea of lighting-off a nuke underwater.
Dynamite or other explosive used for fishing (illegally). The shockwave compresses the critter and kills it; the water is noncompressible. The only reason the area is limited it that the intensity of the shockwave decreases as a function of the inverse cube of the fadius from the detonation (think F/r^3). The more explosive force, all other things equal, the larger the area affected.
Yep. It took 90 days to drill it in the first place, and it will take 90 more to drill another. They better damn well be doing THAT!
It is the only way to hopefully reduce the pressure enough to engineer a seal for the broken well.
What an idiot. How about 'unsightly' OIL covering the beaches?! /s
And this gusher ain`t going to stop until the pocket is empty. I have no faith whatsover that BP or anyone else on this planet can stop this. We`re looking at the (man-made) extinction of God knows how many species of wildlife. This is going to be the worst disaster in the gulf since the dinosaur killing asteroid hit 65 million years ago. And this won`t be confined to the gulf. Once the oil gets into the loop currents, this is going to be an ecological disaster up and down the Atlantic coast.
“Nuke it. It’s the only way to be sure.”
Yeah. Things are`nt bad enough. By all means lets nuke the seafloor.
“Nuke it. It’s the only way to be sure.”
Yeah. Things are`nt bad enough. By all means lets nuke the seafloor.
I heard a geologist say a nuke could open fisures and all hell would break loose. It would possibly cause hundreds of leaks of the size they’re trying to stop.
“Beleive me, we have geologists and nuclear explosives experts who can do this.”
And, of course, experts have never been wrong about anything, have they?
I am sorry you are having to go through this. This spill is horrible beyond belief and there’s no end in sight. The handling of this whole thing is a disaster in and of itself. I can’t help but think if this well had been off the West coast (or off the coast of any “blue” state),that more would have been done immediately to lessen the environmental impact. Also would BP have been able to cut corners with their safety issues if it would have affected Martha’s Vinyard or Malibu rather than the so-called “redneck Riviera?”
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