Posted on 06/21/2010 2:32:39 PM PDT by blam
Here's What Oil Industry Insiders Are Gossiping About The Oil Spill
The Mad Hedge Fund Trader
Jun. 21, 2010, 4:13 PM
Over the years, I have invested so much time wildcatting in the oil patch that I will never be wanting for great steaks at Nick & Sam's in Dallas, skyboxes at Cowboys games, and personally signed 8 X 10 glossy photographs of George W. Bush. So to get the skinny on the BP mess, I spent the weekend catching up with old friends who live with a permanent oil stain under their fingernails.
Some of the chatter that came back was amazing. BP has discovered the largest and most powerful well in history, and control of it may be outside existing technology. The previous record gusher was Union Oil Co.'s Lakeview well in Maricopa, California, which spewed out a staggering 100,000 barrels a day at its peak in 1910, and created an enormous oil lake in the central part of the state. Estimates for the BP well now range up to 50% more than that. The pressures at 18,000 feet are so enormous, that drilling two more relief wells might only result in creating two more oil spills.
If Obama doesn't want to take the nuclear option, (click here for my piece), then there will be no other alternative but for the spill to continue until the field exhausts itself or becomes capable, possibly some time next year. This is not the end of the world. Less than 1% of the spilled oil is ending up on the beaches. Watch TV, and that is not 150,000 barrels on the beach in Pensacola, Florida. Most of the crude is being moved parallel to the coast by the current and will eventually end up in the mid-Atlantic
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(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Oh my, it may have been a classic Freudian slip as I certainly know how to spell dome.
The nile crocodle has a bite of around 5300 psi. I’ll stay with 20,000 to 70,000 psi.
You can believe in the tooth fairy as far as I am concerned.
Schlumberger logged the downhole pressure at 11,800. Not speculation by some weiner “expert”.
Oil, in water, (generally) floats. No pump needed.
A semi-educated guess would be 30 days. Maybe a little sooner, maybe a little longer.
From now on the drilling will be much, much slower and a lot of things could go wrong and cause delays.
Most people do not realize that drilling an oil well starts out with a “plan”. A very flexible plan as nothing ever goes according to plan. Not like building a house but more like fighting a war. Everything can be fluid, changing by the hour or minute and constant changes and adjustments have to be made.
On time and on budget is a rarity.
I'm thankful you're here biff - interesting insights.
biff has some interesting insights into the process ... seems it’s not an exact science - more like an in-flux art...
The weight of the mud was in an email...could have been fabricated ...
Odd the MSM isn't able to "catch" the under-reporting by BP and the Coast Guard. It seems simple enough - do what you did Irisshlass: Go to an engineer and ask a few questions...
I have two brothers that are engineers.
Rational thinking must run in your family...
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