BP delays key test on Gulf of Mexico oil well

BBC ^ | 14 July 2010 Last updated at 23:03 ET | BBC Staff

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

BP has delayed a key test on a newly installed well cap aimed at stopping the flow of oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP and US Coast Guard officials said further analysis was needed before pressure testing could begin.

If it proves successful, the well will be kept "shut in" and the leak halted until relief wells plug it entirely.

The blown-out well has been spewing oil into Gulf waters since April. The US administration has sent BP and other parties a new bill for the clean-up.

The administration says the latest bill is for $99.7m (£65.8m).

The oil giant has already fully paid the last three bills totalling $122.2m (£80.6m) for costs related to response and clean-up of the spill, according to the Obama administration.'No promises'

The test in the Gulf of Mexico, which was supposed to begin on Tuesday, will determine whether BP's new cap can contain the oil.

Coast Guard chief Admiral Thad Allen said the extra analysis would continue into Wednesday.

This latest move to stop the oil comes a day after the containment cap was placed on the leaking well.

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The sealing cap system never before has been deployed at these depths or under these conditions”

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Work on the permanent relief well solution continues.

BP Vice-President Kent Wells said no promises could be made about whether the new cap would work.

"It's not simple stuff. What we don't want to do is speculate around it," he said.

Shutting in the well would provide a temporary solution to the leaking oil. BP is continuing work on the relief well that is expected permanently to stop the oil.

[valkyry1]

Obviously they are afraid that if they shut in the well the well head will blow off.

[valkyry1]

But is not 3 miles of rock, its more like 2 miles of of mud and then it starts to turn into shale at least from what I understand.

[valkyry1]

//The nuclear option is ridiculous//

Yes, nukes may work in some oil fields but this one is totally different. I just have a real bad feeling about nuking it, but I am not in the chain of command.

[valkyry1]

//A lot of dry air and dust blew in from the Sahara//

It wont be dry by the time it gets over here.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Sara ....I believe you have been reading the Doomsters stories too much...but we will find out soon enough.

Thousands of wells worldwide ...but somehow this little batch under the ocean is totally different....

I don't buy that.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The methane deposit under the US travels from Texas to New York and I think they could set the whole thing off.

Man oh man....this is a HUGE Problem....Gas for the Centuries too come...if we don't blow it up....

Wouldn't a Nuke do just that???

[Smokin' Joe]

To me the relief well is just happy-happy, hope-hope nothingness to persuade us they did everything they could short of nuking it.

Well, I can see you haven't worked very long in the oil patch, and by the methane comment (I agree with you that it is a risky thing to do. The methane deposit under the US travels from Texas to New York and I think they could set the whole thing off. They used to believe the deposits were separate, encased deposits but they found out in the recent past it is not. The methane freely travels from one deposit to another. I have not seen this discussed anywhere yet; I know it for another situation that I researched. ), I'm pretty sure you aren't a geologist.

Pray tell, what are your qualifications for having such a rosy prognosis for the future?

I'd like to see your sources for the methane communication from Texas to New York, too. I find that particularly intriguing.

[valkyry1]

You need to learn more about the geology of the Gulf

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Subthread from today's open thread on The Oil Drum:

a story on Bloomberg about the delay....

*****************************EXCERPT*****************************

beachmommy on July 14, 2010 - 10:31am

Condensed version:

BP & gov officials still intend to conduct the assessment, which BP and OBAMA (?) admin will use to determine whether the leak can be safely sealed.
Trial was scheduled to start yesterday, and it was postponed after BP met with Allan, Chu and a government team of scientist and industry experts, who decided more analysis needed to be done before they proceeded. "We continue to review protocols for the well integrity test, including the seismic mapping run that was made around the well site this morning" Allen said. "As a result of those discussions we decided the process may benfit from additional analysis". BP is continuing to operate a system for capturing some of the oil, which is piped to surface ships.

Once the test begins, BP may need 48 hours of data to declare the well safe to seal, and we may know within 6 hours if it can't be sealed.

The rest of the article is old news.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Then there is a debate between the side that says ....stop the oil now....and the side that says....you will blow up the Gulf if you stop it now....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

You need to learn more about the geology of the Gulf

OK....where do I start?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

You said:

But is not 3 miles of rock, its more like 2 miles of of mud and then it starts to turn into shale at least from what I understand.

I'm not sure I disagree with that....

Somewhere On one of the threads there were some links dropped to some of the seismic mapping of the Mississippi Canyon are of this well....

Think it was from one of the Universities of the area....might have been Texas A&M.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Found this:

Macondo Prospect, Gulf of Mexico, USA

************************************EXCERPT********************************

A regional shallow hazards survey and study was carried out at the project area by KC Offshore in 1998. High resolution (HR), 2D seismic data along with 3D exploration seismic data of the MC 252 was collected by Fugro Geoservices in 2003. Mapping of the block was carried out by BP America in 2008 and 2009.

[Smokin' Joe]

Trial was scheduled to start yesterday, and it was postponed after BP met with Allan, Chu and a government team of scientist and industry experts, who decided more analysis needed to be done before they proceeded.

Pretty much says it all, doesn't it?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

More:

Prolific Miocene Trend Hurt by Blowout

Miocene deep water sands were the target for the Macondo well in Mississippi Canyon Block 252, and it is probably from one of these sands that the blowout originates.

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Suvi Maingarm, PGS

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The recent blowout of an exploration well on April 20 on BP’s Macondo Prospect in Mississippi Canyon[1] Block 252 has attracted media attention for the potential environmental consequences of the incident. The well is located in the northeastern part of the Gulf of Mexico, approximately 85 km (52 miles) southeast of the bird’s foot delta of the Mississippi River.

The Mississippi Canyon protraction area is one of the most prolific sectors of the Gulf of Mexico outer continental shelf (OCS), being home to many producing fields, including BP’s deep water Thunder Horse field, a world-class giant with capacity to produce 250,000 bopd through the world’s largest semisubmersible production-drilling-quarters (PDQ) facility in 1844 m (6050 ft) of water in Mississippi Canyon Block 778.

The production facility nearest to Macondo is Shell and BP’s Na Kika complex, located in Mississippi Canyon Block 474 approximately 25 km (15 miles) south-southeast of the blowout.  The Na Kika facility is the collecting point for six (originally five) separate fields that produce both oil and gas from Miocene deep water sands.  This facility, which is a semisubmersible host permanently moored in 1935 m (6350 ft) of water, is designed to recover up to 300 MMboe from its contributing fields.

The mega-regional geologic history of the Gulf Coast basin has been controlled through time by the close interaction of sedimentation and salt tectonism in an overall extensional setting.  Within this setting the intensity of deformation in the northeastern portion of the basin has been relatively low.  In contrast, in the central and western parts of the basin the Tertiary section is much thicker and the structural complexity is greater, including stacked salt sheets and welds, large listric growth faults, and compressional folds and reverse faults at the downdip toes of major extensional fault systems.

The 2D seismic line, due south of the Macondo prospect, traverses through one of the Na Kika fields and clearly shows features that are typical of the extensional structural style related to basin formation and the movement of salt in response to sediment loading in this part of the Gulf of Mexico.

Immediately following rifting of continental crust in Early-Middle Jurassic time, the so-called “post-rift” Middle Jurassic Louann Salt was deposited unconformably on Lower Jurassic - Triassic (?) “syn-rift” sediments in the nascent Gulf Coast basin.  This salt was mobilized by subsequent sediment loading beginning in Late Jurassic time and continuing intermittently through to the present day.

A distinctive sea-floor signature of bathymetric highs has resulted (see bathymetric map), corresponding to individual shallow salt bodies that have not coalesced to form large salt sheets or canopies as has occurred farther to the west. The sea-floor expression of shallow salt bodies (highlighted in red) is also evident at both ends of the seismic line.

The pronounced syncline evident in the center of the seismic line separates two so-called “turtle” structures that formed in response to withdrawal of the Louann Salt in Late Jurassic - Early Cretaceous (?) time (hence the expanded Upper Jurassic - Lower Cretaceous section annotated on the line).

The thick Miocene section above the “Top of Lower Tertiary Carbonates” reflection contains the reservoir sands that are producing in Na Kika and other fields in the area.  Miocene sands also were the targets on Macondo, although it is not known how these sands, including the one from which the blowout originated, correlate to nearby producing Miocene reservoirs.

Plio-Pleistocene sediments are relatively thin in this part of the Gulf of Mexico, but thicken markedly to the west where they serve as excellent reservoirs in major oil and gas fields.

 

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[1] The Mississippi Canyon is an undersea canyon south of Louisiana. With an average width of 8 km and a length of 120 km it is the dominant bathymetric feature of the north-central Gulf of Mexico.

Shaded topographic map of the sea floor of the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. © PGS

2D depth-migrated seismic line through one of the Na Kika fields, Kepler, on which the main oil pay sand in the field is highlighted by an anomalous high amplitude seismic reflection. The Macondo feature is approximately 16 km (10 mi) north of this line. © PGS

Article from GEO ExPro Magazine NO3 - 2010

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Chu and crew probably need education time.

[SaraJohnson]

No I am not a geologist. I can research and read geologists’ findings, however. You should try it.

[SaraJohnson]

Then you get to having to redesign a water and pressure resistant, enhanced radiation nuclear weapon that will fit to go down a 9 or 10 inch borehole. All this can be done but it takes a few months. The military should be working on this right now in case the relief wells fail....But I doubt they are because 0bama is too gay to order it.

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They are working on it in Canada with BP.

[Smokin' Joe]

Really? Ya think? I have a bachelor of Science in Geology, a year's work on a master's, and thirty one years in the field, most of it in petroleum. I am a registered professional geologist.

Would you care to cite your sources?

[AFreeBird]

If the seabed and bedrock are already fractured/compromised, then nuking it would be a bad idea.