BP oil leak: Fallen Deepwater Horizon was tapping second largest oil deposit in the world

Examiner.com/Miami ^ | 5/23/2010 | Maryann Tobin

[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.

[mojitojoe]

What are they doing now? Do you know?

[Royal Wulff]

What the heck did they drop the other tool? They just went back to get another one.

[The Cajun]

The burst strength of the 16” casing is apparently ~10,000 psi.

I would guess the working pressure to be around 5K to 7.5K. On new casing anyway.
Have see several joints (old) riser burst below working pressure during testing. Quite a Ba-Whosh even when filled with water.

[Royal Wulff]

I think they trying to disconenct the flow line from the RIT.

They’ve got one more bolt to remove from that blue flange.

Then they’re going to put that heavy top hat which they went and picked up off the ocean floor over the top (I think).

[Vendome]

Yep. That is why the other drone is a tool box with spares.

[Dinah Lord]

I’m transfixed.

[Royal Wulff]

They got slimed again!

[Dinah Lord]

Holding my breath.

[Dinah Lord]

Got it?

I saw them being slimed - amazing.

[Royal Wulff]

My guess is they are disconnecting the flow line so the Discoverer Enterprise can move out of the way in case the top kill goes catastrophically wrong.

http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/incident_response/STAGING/local_assets/images/Simultaneous_operations_overview_large.jpg

[Dinah Lord]

Thanks - that diagram is great! It really sets the table for the complexity of the operation.

I take it the Discoverer Enterprise is the big ship shown in the diagram?

The Discoverer Enterprise of Transocean is the first ultra- deepwater drillship with dual activity drilling technology, which aims to reduce the cost of an ultra deepwater development project by up to 40 percent.

This massive, multi-purpose vessel can work in the deepest waters being explored in the world today. It can drill, test and complete wells in water depths of up to 10,000 feet - almost two miles. At 835 feet, the Discoverer Enterprise is almost as long as three U.S. football fields, and it can drill a well more than 6.5 miles beneath its drill floor.

[cmsgop]

That's the old Glomar Explorer right?????? Cold War Hero.

[Dinah Lord]

Hah! Another thing I had to look up, cmsgop.

The Hughes Glomar Explorer [HGE] was built in 1973 by Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. for an intricate CIA undertaking. The mission of Glomar Explorer was to raise a Soviet nuclear submarine that had sunk in the Pacific, resting on the ocean floor nearly 17,000 ft. (5,200 m) down. The Soviet Golf-II Class ballistic missile submarine sank on April 11, 1968, approximately 750 miles northwest of Hawaii. Naval intelligence at Pearl Harbor had tracked the submarine and learned of its fate through underwater listening devices. After months of futile searching by Soviet vessels, it became apparent that only the US knew the location of the sunken submarine...

There's definitely a resemblance.

[Dinah Lord]

Not for nothing - if people think the US government can take over this operation - they are out of their minds!

[mojitojoe]

They are saying over here that they are working on the dispersant arm that was damaged in the explosion earlier this evening.

http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1073773/pg138

[steve86]

Amazing high res photo of surface scene taken from Coast Guard helo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/deepwaterhorizonresponse/4619968508/sizes/o/

[Dinah Lord]

Verry interesting. It looks like you weren’t the only one to see the explosion tonite, mojitojoe.

[Royal Wulff]

Well, I don’t think the dispersant insertion tube is way up there.

That thing I thought was a top hat is instead just a big heavy weight I think.

They’ve got it tied to the upper part of the RIT and they keep picking it up and dropping it trying to pull the RIT out of the flow tube???

[Dinah Lord]

Wow. Thanks. Why isn’t the MSM showing these kind of pics from the site as opposed to the endless plume loop they aren’t currently showing?

[steve86]

The Q4000 Junk Shot ship is the red/orange vessel in the middle, just in front of the flare.