Tag: Blow Out Preventer

New Cap for Leaking Oil Well as Slick Blows Towards Texas, & More Alaska Drilling

Just when you thought we were up to our a$$es in oily alligators,  the Obama Administration Department of the Interior announces plans to open 1.8 million acres of Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve to bidding on 190 new tracts for NEW OIL AND GAS DRILLING.   Bidding will open Aug 11.

Gotta Love Grist. Called it The Dept of Not Learning.      http://www.grist.org/article/2…

It’s only another 1.8 million acres.

http://interior.gov/news/press…

Increases number of oil/gas wells by 60% from 310 to 500.

Increases number of acres under drilling  by 60% from 3 million  to 4.8 million

Teshekpuk Lake is 80 miles east of Point Barrow on the northern Alaska coastline, which is already being damaged by the warming climate and melting arctic sea ice.  Up to 90,000 geese use the area to molt every summer, and the Indigenous people use part of the local caribou herd to survive by subsistence hunting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T…

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The BP Oil Slick is Blowing Towards Texas.  Here’s the satellite image from NASA, Friday, July 9th,  from 1 km up in space

http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa…

BP oil spill,texas coast,achalafalay bay

Friday, July 9, 2010.  Oil slick heads west towards Texas coast. photo NASA

BP oil spill,yucatan penninsula,texas coast,achalafalay bay

Oil Slick now extends south all the way to the east of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.  This is the bottom half of the same image of the Gulf of Mexico on 7/9/10 as above. photo NASA

photo from today, Saturday July 10, 2010

Gulf,BP Oil Spill,texas coastline,nature,tragedy

Today, July 10, 2010, Gulf of Mexico.  Winds are now shifting to come out of the west/southwest again after an east wind drove this oil towards Texas earlier this week.    But the oil to the south near the Yucatan peninsula,  is probably going to continue to go west, then north again,  with the natural Gulf clockwise current.   photo, NRL Monterey, biomass, satellite Aqua

New Cap for Leaking Oil Well as Slick Blows Towards Texas, & More Alaska Drilling

Just when you thought we were up to our a$$es in oily alligators,  the Obama Administration Department of the Interior announces plans to open 1.8 million acres of Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve to bidding on 190 new tracts for NEW OIL AND GAS DRILLING.   Bidding will open Aug 11.

Gotta Love Grist. Called it The Dept of Not Learning.      http://www.grist.org/article/2…

It’s only another 1.8 million acres.

http://interior.gov/news/press…

Increases number of oil/gas wells by 60% from 310 to 500.

Increases number of acres under drilling  by 60% from 3 million  to 4.8 million

Teshekpuk Lake is 80 miles east of Point Barrow on the northern Alaska coastline, which is already being damaged by the warming climate and melting arctic sea ice.  Up to 90,000 geese use the area to molt every summer, and the Indigenous people use part of the local caribou herd to survive by subsistence hunting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T…

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The BP Oil Slick is Blowing Towards Texas.  Here’s the satellite image from NASA, Friday, July 9th,  from 1 km up in space

http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa…

BP oil spill,texas coast,achalafalay bay

Friday, July 9, 2010.  Oil slick heads west towards Texas coast. photo NASA

BP oil spill,yucatan penninsula,texas coast,achalafalay bay

Oil Slick now extends south all the way to the east of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.  This is the bottom half of the same image of the Gulf of Mexico on 7/9/10 as above. photo NASA

photo from today, Saturday July 10, 2010

Gulf,BP Oil Spill,texas coastline,nature,tragedy

Today, July 10, 2010, Gulf of Mexico.  Winds are now shifting to come out of the west/southwest again after an east wind drove this oil towards Texas earlier this week.    But the oil to the south near the Yucatan peninsula,  is probably going to continue to go west, then north again,  with the natural Gulf clockwise current.   photo, NRL Monterey, biomass, satellite Aqua

WTF? Two Drill Pipes in BP’s BOP, Nobody Admitting It

For weeks now, I’ve seen the same discussion over and over again at the Oil Drum.  Somebody looks at the picture of the sawed off riser pipe with what looks to be 2 drill pipes stuck inside of it, when they were trimming the bent over riser off the Blow Out Preventer, before they put the LMRP Oil Sucking Cap on it,  and they ask,

what is that second pipe inside the riser ?”

And the answer is, “oh, that can’t be a second drill pipe, it must have been crushed when they cut the riser off with the pipe shear.  It’s a figure eight, it’s not two pipes, it’s one pipe, crushed.”

“But it looks like 2 pipes. the diameter looks too big for one pipe. ”

“yes, but it’s one. it’s crimped. ”

Guess what.


http://www.latimes.com/news/na…

The gushing BP oil well is a mystery still unfolding, and late last month, a team of scientists from the Energy Department discovered a new twist: Their sophisticated imaging equipment detected not one but two drill pipes, side by side, inside the wreckage of the well’s blowout preventer on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

BP officials said it was impossible. The Deepwater Horizon rig, which drilled the well, used a single pipe, connected in segments, to bore 13,000 feet below the ocean floor. But when workers cut into the wreckage to install a containment cap this month, sure enough, they found two pipes.

Fancy that !  Bp Tony Deepwotter Spinmeister Hayward never mentioned this before, did he ?

Is BP’s Blow Out Preventer Falling Off The Well Pipe?

After a video was released on June 13th recorded from BP’s underwater Viking Poseidon ROV 1 operating in the Gulf of Mexico near the blown out Macondo Well site showing what appeared to be oil leaks from gulf seabed cracks around BP’s well site, it seemed that it would be only a question of time before an oil saturated gulf seabed turning to wet slippery jello would no longer have the structural strength to support the weight of BP’s large steel 450 ton Blow Out Preventer (BOP) apparatus sitting on top of the well pipe projecting from that seabed.

“http://www.antemedius.com/files/images/BOP.jpg

Oil Leaks From Gulf Seabed Cracks Around BP’s Well Site?

Crossposted from Antemedius

BP has a collection of ‘bots’ or ROV’s, remotely operated vehicles, tethered underwater robots operating in the Gulf of Mexico near the blown out Macondo Well site, while they attempt to either plug the leak or at least find ways to recover and siphon off the leaking oil.

Sitting on top of the well pipe projecting from the seabed is the BOP, or Blow Out Preventer, the large steel 450 ton apparatus that you may have seen in various photographs and videos from BP’s Live Feed as they recently cut off the top of the riser pipe that ran from the BOP to the Deepwater Horizon platform before it burned and sank.

There has been much speculation lately that the well bore is damaged below the seabed and that oil is leaking out of the well into the seabed underneath and around the BOP.

Keeping in mind that the BOP weighs 450 tons it would seem that if the seabed is becoming saturated with oil leaking through it that is only a question of time before the seabed will no longer have the structural strength to support the weight of the BOP and that it could fall off the top of the well pipe it is sitting on, releasing an uncontrolled and uncontrollable flow of oil into the gulf with no way of plugging or stopping it.

BP denies that oil or gas are leaking from cracks in the sea floor on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

This video was recorded from the Viking Poseidon ROV 1 on June 13th, 2010, and appears to show bursts of oil leaking from cracks in the seabed.

BP’s live feed from the Viking Poseidon ROV 1 is here, with the disclaimer ” Please be aware, this is a live stream and may freeze or be unavailable from time to time.”

Saturday,Day 39, BP’s Suttles admits it’s scary that Top Kill flunked, Here Comes LMRP CAP

Turned on the tube, there’s a live press conference with  Rr. Admiral Landry and BP’s Spokesperson Doug Suttles.

Top Kill is officially Not Working.  

Suttles

“We’ve tried and it scares everybody that we haven’t succeeded in getting this stopped.”

No. Kidding.

Admiral Landry.

Obviously we’re very disappointed in today’s announcement.

We will continue with a very aggressive response posture (to get this under control)

Have directed BP to to move forward with the next option, LMRP.  

(added later quote) The real solution has been and continues to be the relief well.  

Mmm, hmm. Yes.

They think that if they can get a good seal over the top, the LMRP  Cap, lower marine riser package Cap, might work, which is the option they are going for next.

This is a newly engineered object, different than what they have used before, which is going to go on top on what they have, with a sort of seal, not a mechanical seal, but a “sealing device” and methanol injection for antifreeze,  that Suttles says “should” capture a lot of the oil.   Will not be a tight fitting may not completely seal off like a flange.

Pipe will be cut with a large crimping device and a big saw to get it ready for its new LMRP CAP.   (this is not being done for the pathetic little “top hat” device they lowered to the marine floor, never to be seen again. this is a new thing.)

Wilberforce correctly anticipated this this morning.   Where I disagreed is that this was happening this am,  is that it is going to take at least 4 days to set up, per the Coast Guard and Suttles, right now.  Landry is saying now, more like 4 to 7 days, because people remember the smaller number, and they hit glitches in trying to execute this, she emphasizes this is cutting edge technology.  They are using the data they gather from the “sippy tube” other end of the broken pipe to help design this.   That is currently what is being shown on the live feed and what was being shown earlier today.  I’ve seen then playing around with cutting on this end before.

I thought they would be too timid and/or cautious to try actually cutting the mess on the top of the BOP, because this will release a huge amount of oil that is currently restricted, which they then must be able to get this new cap securely attached, unfrozen inside,  to capture, but they are going for it. This is letting more of the Genie out of the bottle, and he’s not going to go back in easier.

My intrepretation is that they fear the well casing is not in very good shape and they want to start siphoning asap in case the relief well fails or the vital structures of the well fails, which Adm. Landry said was a possibility earlier this week.  A major hole blow out is only good for the movies.  In really, that is a catastrophe which will be unstoppable until all the oil and gas have leached out, which could take….. years.  

Suttles is also still bullsh*tting people on the Corexit, says the monitoring shows no toxicity.  Says breaking the oil up into tiny droplets will allow the microbes to eat it more easily.  

More like it’s keeping under the surface and swirling around in the Gulf in vast swarms.

Suttles: 12,000 feet deep in the relief well, counting 5000 feet of water, best forecast for the relief well is early August.

This is still a very dangerous and risky operation, and if you are in the habit of praying, start doing it.

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edit update, here’s a picture from Beyond Pathetic of what I shall be calling Oil Hat Sucker #3

BP Oil Spill,LMRP CAP,Top Cap #3,Climate,Nature,Tragedy,Gulf of Mexico,Oil Spill,Gulf of Mexico Satellite Picture

We had the containment “outhouse” box that froze shut, the sippy tube stuck up its bum, the drill mud top kill that didn’t, the junk shot that wouldn’t clog the petrotoilet, and the the forlorn little cap that they sunk down there and never used.  And now,

Introducing BP’s Oil Spill LMRP Lower Marine Riser Package CAP,  aka Oil Hat Sucker #3.    

Which is going to use a pressure gasket with no hardware casing, as a fitting on a 12,000 pounds per square inch oil and methane gas wildcat well 5,000 feet under the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.

As the spoof twitter bpTerry of spoof twitter bpPublic Relations said yesterday, “I just bought a magic wand, and I’m going to start waving it. ”

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second update.

fixed spelling in blockquote, added sentence by Landry which clarifies the relief well is the way they expect to finally get this under permanent control.   Suttles reiterated that the other oil gathering devices, the caps,  are to test and implement and prevent as much oil as possible from getting loose in the Gulf and washing ashore, while this solution is worked on.

BP’s Tony Hayward is quoted by CNN as being “disappointed”  top kill failed.   Yeah, we are too.  Especially since it was more of a test round and you never did cap off the sippy tube open end.

The CNN guy is so excited he just said the Top Tail Method did not work to kill the well. You could see him wondering if he should correct himself, he just went on.

 

Wednesday 5/26 “Top Kill Is A Go ” thread

edit update(See Thursday morning update at bottom of diary)

Rr. Admiral Landry granted approval for BP to begin plugging the well. (Wednesday am)

5/26/10  11:53 am CST

http://www.deepwaterhorizonres…

Federal On-Scene Coordinator Rear Admiral Mary Landry, acting on the validation of government scientists and in consultation with the National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen, has granted approval for BP to begin proceeding with their attempt to cap the well using the technique known as the “top kill.”

This expedited step provides the final authorization necessary to begin the procedure.

Per the Joint Information Center Unified Command,  http://twitter.com/Oil_Spill_2…   “TOP KILL” is a Go at the blown out BP Oil rig a mile under the Gulf of Mexico, and the oil company will attempt to block the well with drill mud pumped in thru new lines connected to the Blow Out Preventer on the well head, which run up to the ships above.

I will be updating this diary during the day as news progress.

I just turned off the television idiots who could not tell me whether or not this was happening.  If there is a delay, it is because BP feels like they are not ready or have hit a technical problem, but the Govt says “go.”  

Morning Migraine: BiPartisanship Commission Member Named to BiPartisanship BP Oil Spill Study

Saturday May 21, 2010  One month and one day past the destruction of the drilling rig of the Deepwater Horizon, with BP unable to stop the oil blowout destroying the Gulf, President Obama’s anonymous source announced he will appoint former  Senator Bob Graham (D, FL) and former EPA head William K Reilly to a commission to study the cause of the spill, federal oversight, and the potential risks.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…

William K Reilly was administrator at the EPA under the first George Bush administration, George H W “Poppy” Bush, the one who invaded the Middle East the First Time and went to war against Iraq the First Time, which was called the ……  Gulf War.


The commission, modeled on ones which investigated the Challenger shuttle explosion and the nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, will not include any federal officials, administration officials said this week.

Updated:Saturday’s Oil Spill Govt Press Conference vs Concerns over Corexit in UK media

website for Saturday’s Deepwater Horizon Response Press Conference

http://www.dvidshub.net/?scrip…



5/15/2010 video by your govt and Lt Scott Sagisi of JPASE

This is the government’s version of what’s going on with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill Saturday.  

The following is a partial transcript.  Everyone was speaking very quickly today, where they were repeating phrases that didn’t add much meaning, I left it out, a few phrases are transposed in order.  Salazar starts out strong like somebody had a Come to Geebus talk with him, tries to sound like Winston Churchill before his Dunkirk of the Tar Balls, then reverts to mumbles.  Adm. Landry is concise, and by God, if a Tarball breaches her boom deployment she’s gonna have they Navy and Coast Guard rendition that thing so fast it’s never going to know what hit it.  BP’s Suttles.  I think everybody would like to smack Suttles by now, but are holding back.   He did acknowledge Mother Nature was cutting them a break, which was interesting.