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Something is Happening in Top Kill Process [LIVE THREAD]
http://www.bp.com/ ^ | 5/26/2010 | Self

Posted on 05/26/2010 1:49:19 PM PDT by Positive

I have been monitoring the live feed of the "Top Kill" apparatus from BP.com and after about three hours there is a definite change of events down there.

For the first couple of hours we could see several views of a very complex device rocking around in clear water.

Now there is gushing of what I presume is the "mud" plumeing.

We may get some incite as to progress soon.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Business/Economy; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: bp; deepwaterhorizon; gulf; oil; oilspill; spill; topkill
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To: rogertarp
"If it fails, would a small nuke work?"

I would NOT want to try a "nuke". One of the older ways to SPEED UP production of formations used to be to set off an explosion in them. This opens cracks in the rock so oil can flow more freely.

At one time, it was thought that nuclear explosions would "be perfect" for this, and it was actually tried on a gas formation somewhere out West (in the days of "Project Plowshare". It worked, and production was significantly increased, but it turned out that the gas was too radioactive to use.

An increase in production is NOT what we want here. If the "Top Kill" doesn't work, we'll just need to be patient until the relief wells get done, which is slower but surer.

The following is from "The Oil Drum" (sent by my sis-in-law who is a geophysicist in Houston):

"........the larger numbers that have been quoted in the press, of 70,000 to 100,000 bd are purely sensational and not based on science. Unfortunately they also serve to increase alarm and suggest threats to the tourist industries of Alabama, Mississippi and Florida that do not realistically exist."

61 posted on 05/26/2010 4:15:30 PM PDT by Wonder Warthog
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To: Positive
From what I see, it appears a pipe is lying horizontally and oil is spewing from a couple of ruptures.
62 posted on 05/26/2010 4:15:31 PM PDT by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true)
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To: Windflier

This doesn’t look good to me. You pump a liquid into a moving liquid it wants to get carried along with it and out the leak. It would take a massive pumping operation to overcome the natural flow of the leak with a heavier fluid.


63 posted on 05/26/2010 4:21:57 PM PDT by omega4179 (www.jdforsenate.com)
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To: omega4179
It would take a massive pumping operation to overcome the natural flow of the leak with a heavier fluid.

They have eight 30,000 HP pumps and that's just on one rig.

64 posted on 05/26/2010 4:26:38 PM PDT by steve86 (Acerbic by nature, not nurture)
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To: Positive
"you will see that I used both words as a tongue in cheek way"

The Barney Frank Impression Contest isn't 'till tomorrow.
65 posted on 05/26/2010 4:31:15 PM PDT by shibumi (Pablo (the Wily One) signed up for the "Hippo Attack" ping list!)
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To: Positive

As I’ve been watching, it appears as though it’s mud coming up now. Which, I think, is a good sign.


66 posted on 05/26/2010 4:35:56 PM PDT by Road Warrior ‘04 (I miss President Bush greatly! Palin in 2012! 2012 - The End Of An Error! (Oathkeeper))
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To: omega4179

The entire key to this current process is to be able to pump mud into the well faster than it can be carried out by the fluids flowing out of the well. If they can’t do that they are wasting their time but I believe they CAN do this.

The well is flowing at something like 3 barrels per minute. if you can pump in 4 barrels per minute you will eventually kill the well assuming that the well is structurally intact downhole and doesn’t allow the mud being pumped in to flow out into the formation.


67 posted on 05/26/2010 4:37:24 PM PDT by Bigun ("It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." Voltaire)
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To: Bigun

I think once the mud is flowing downhill they could begin lowering the pumping pressure then send down cement kind of like achieving balance against the formation pressure? just my 2cents.


68 posted on 05/26/2010 4:39:18 PM PDT by omega4179 (www.jdforsenate.com)
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To: omega4179

Once they get enough mud in the well to overbalance the formation (stop any upward flow of well fluids) they will be able to pump in a big slug of cement and plug the thing off. If they don’t wait until that point the cement will likely be gas cut and will not work!


69 posted on 05/26/2010 4:58:04 PM PDT by Bigun ("It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." Voltaire)
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To: omega4179

Once they get enough mud in the well to overbalance the formation (stop any upward flow of well fluids) they will be able to pump in a big slug of cement and plug the thing off. If they don’t wait until that point the cement will likely be gas cut and will not work!


70 posted on 05/26/2010 4:58:07 PM PDT by Bigun ("It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." Voltaire)
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To: Bigun

It certainly looked like more than 3 barrels a minute in the video


71 posted on 05/26/2010 5:00:58 PM PDT by GeronL (Political Correctness Kills)
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To: AdmSmith; Berosus; bigheadfred; Convert from ECUSA; dervish; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Fred Nerks; ...

thanks Positive.


72 posted on 05/26/2010 5:03:14 PM PDT by SunkenCiv ("Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others." -- Otto von Bismarck)
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To: Positive
Photobucket "OK people, I'm feeling a little pressure to do something. Where's this damn leak they're talking about?"
73 posted on 05/26/2010 5:05:28 PM PDT by Ronald_Magnus
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To: GeronL

3.5 BPM is a little over 5000 BPD. It’s just a guess at any rate but whatever that rate is they need to be able to pump int the well at a higher rate for this to work. The first several hours will be the most critical and they have to be careful so as to not damage anything downhole with overpressure.


74 posted on 05/26/2010 5:06:10 PM PDT by Bigun ("It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." Voltaire)
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To: Wonder Warthog
They have two relief wells being drilled. Nuke would be a very bad idea. :)

If you go to the BP website, they have a video explaining what they are attempting to do and their two other contingency operation in addition to the relief wells. The next attempt will be a top cap procedure designed not to kill the well, but to increase the amount of fluids they can capture. Another contingency is to attempt a BOP on BOP mount to kill the well. Both are pretty dicey, as is this top kill-probably less than 50/50.

Best bet is the relief well, as you stated. As a former "mud engineer," I'm glad I'm not running the mud on this job. No Thank you.
75 posted on 05/26/2010 5:27:49 PM PDT by Sudetenland (Slow to anger but terrible in vengence...such is the character of the American people.)
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To: Bigun

76 posted on 05/26/2010 5:34:38 PM PDT by smokingfrog ( - Free Men will always be armed with the Truth. -)
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To: Positive
I think however, that I will start using Safari (Apple's Browser) for Freeping as it has spell check built in.

Likewise Firefox. I need a grammar checker :-)

77 posted on 05/26/2010 5:35:37 PM PDT by upchuck (Criminal aliens are destroying America. Look what they've done to the White House.)
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To: Positive

Is it just me or has the discharge gotten darker over the last hour or so? Looks like more oil may be mixing in with it.


78 posted on 05/26/2010 5:45:07 PM PDT by pb929
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To: Xenalyte

Heheh


79 posted on 05/26/2010 5:46:53 PM PDT by rlmorel (Radical Muslims are just liberals who believe in Allah instead of The State.)
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To: pb929

It looks to me like it is slowing down.


80 posted on 05/26/2010 5:47:35 PM PDT by US_MilitaryRules (Where is our military?)
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