I know, what is that thing? I can’t find anything explaining what it is. I know that something happened yesterday and the flow has increased ever since then. It also splattered the camera and they had to take it up. I watched as they lowered the new or cleaned one and they were looking all around at gauges, valves, pipes and other stuff. Very stressful to watch, especially if you live on one the coasts that would be affected, and I do.
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From Sun. May 23
Major Change Down Below...
http://monkeyfister.blogspot.com/2010/05/major-change-down-below.html
Something is going on right now, the Image is brown with oil.
A number of different things could cause venting of gas, and without more information, I can't really speculate.
Flowing wells do surge, however, and expanding gas bubbles in the pipe can eject a slug of oil from pipe with amazing force if the gas bubble is just the right size. If this is at the end of the riser, there could have been accumulations of hydrates in the pipe, cleared out by a slug of oil. Sediment will get shifted around by the sudden pressure surge, perhaps even quite a bit, and then settle back down on top of whatever is present.
Without more informaition, though, and missing over half of the images (I get a red 'x'), all I can do is guess.
Incredible pictures at that link! Thanks.
http://monkeyfister.blogspot.com/2010/05/major-change-down-below.html