Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Smokin' Joe
If that is the seafloor, then there is a hole somewhere pressuring up a porous layer under the surface of the sediment and it has broken through to the surface.

While this doesn't mean a top kill can't work, necessarily, it does cut the odds down, depending on where the leak is.

If that is enough to stop the top kill, there remains the relief well option, to get down to the producing formation, fill the existing wellbore with heavy drilling fluid from the bottom, and cement off the wellbore and the producing formation, stopping the oil at its source.

382 posted on 05/26/2010 7:47:33 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 381 | View Replies ]


To: Smokin' Joe
You might want to check out The Oil Drum...

http://tinyurl.com/36rzdy4

A commenter there has this to say about the spot with the 4 plumes.(I have no way to know if it is correct or not but I think it is - just based on observations and other FReepers comments on other threads.)

"There is a choke in the riser - the kink - and also the length itself. There may be some other restrictions as it is 'V' shaped now - kink, down to the mud, up a 1,000' and back down to the mud and along to the exit where the RIT was installed. It also contains the drill string. The kink is the most pronounced restriction and there is enough pressure there for the oil and gas to have eroded the four holes we see in the video now spouting mud."

Would love to hear your views...

383 posted on 05/26/2010 8:00:09 PM PDT by Dinah Lord
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 382 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson