[proud_yank]

The well head is about 3,300lbs but if you attempt to close it then the pressure will increase to 175,000 lbs I recall the diving math was something like 33ft=14.1lbs times 5000 feet and the drill is at 18,000 feet plus the earth pressure at that level

There are two different pressures to consider- wellhead pressure and hydrostatic pressure (pressure of water at depth x). You can't use the well depth to determine the hydrostatic pressure.

IIRC, the wellhead pressure did not exceed 15,000psi. The 3300# you mentioned may be the hydrostatic pressure of the ocean. When I calculated it I got 2170psi for 1515m (5000ft) depth, assuming the density of seawater= 1000kg/m3.

Don't know what would create 175,000#, that is incredibly high.

[Domangart]

Its not my field. I didn’t build atomic bombs , teach physics and put out oil fires. He has the degrees and he said 175.000 lbs.

[raygun]

well-head pressure is approx 13k psig. As long has the well-casing is burst resistance rating higher than that, we’re good to go. Hydrostatic pressure at 5k’ has no bearing at all on this figure whatsoever.

My understanding is that the burst rating of the well-casing was marginal. This allowed segments of the well-casing to balloon out and in a non-uniform manner. This also affected structual integrity of the well-casing string in the vertical and directionality of the bore-hole was also affected.

It was a nightmare aligning and sealing the borehole because of all the aforementioned issues combined. The coup de gras was the failure to emplace a liner hanger in the furthest downhole section of well-casing. When the drilling mud was removed and replaced with sea-water, the oil/gas at 70,000 psi - in resevior - had a clear shot to the top. That cleared out a bunch of the cement sealing the well-casing to the bore hole.

As I understand it, some of the well-casing telescoped into itself, and upwards into the BOP. The shear rams are designed to shear riser pipe (not well-casing). If the You Nork Slimes article is 1/2 way accurate, which I doubt (given that the journalist quality of any 5th grader’s reporting for the school newspaper is by leaps and bounds superior quality), the claim that the rams were within inches of securing the blowout suggests the the strength of the shear rams in any case.