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Volcanic Ash Solution
While we have been intently focused on the Macondo well, BOE Europe Chief Odd Finnestad has been addressing the air transport issues associated with that really big blowout in Iceland! Odd must miss his boss, who has been stranded in Rio (a likely story :))
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Senior Chief Petty Officer Mike O’Berry said remote controlled submarines have been unable to shut the valves on equipment at the wellhead on the sea floor, but it appears the flow of oil from subsurface reservoirs has stopped on its own. Houston Chronicle
It’s surprising that the flow would stop on its own. They were reported to have just set production casing, so the well was fully cased. Perhaps the flow emanated from the production casing annulus, and sediments bridged or plugged the annulus? It will be interesting to see what the next steps are. An attempt to reconnect to the well with a new rig and riser would seem unlikely unless they can confirm that the BOPE is functioning properly. It seems likely that the relief well will continue.
Posted in accidents, well control incidents | Tagged accidents, blowouts, drilling, macondo, offshore oil, safety, well control | 2 Comments »
Per the Coast Guard, there is no flow from the well as of this morning. (more to follow)
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-Per the Houston Chronicle, the missing include 9 Transocean employees and 2 from the mud contractor M-I SWACO.
-According to AP and others, the fire was extinguished when the rig sank. I have seen no information on the condition or location of the riser, or the release point (depth) for the oil. This needs to be clarified.
-The worst-case pollution scenario is thus emerging. In addition to booms and skimmers, will the responders deploy fire boom and attempt to burn oil on the water surface? When and how will dispersants be used? Will new thickness sensors and aerial slick mapping technology be employed? This spill will be the ultimate challenge (and opportunity) for responders.
-Very few clues have been provided about what caused the blowout. At the first news conference, Transocean reported that production casing was being set, implying an influx during or just after cementing operations (a common contributing factor for well control incidents). A cement plug was to be set as a barrier in the well, which was to have been suspended (temporarily abandoned). No information has been provided on the flow path for the hydrocarbons, attempted use of BOPE, and other issues of great interest. The high flow rate would seem to imply a flow path directly up the production casing, but this is just speculation.
-According to Upstream, Transocean’s newest semisubmersible, the Development Driller III, will drill the relief well.
-I haven’t given up hope on actuating BOPE with the ROV. They should be able to function rams in that manner. No information has been provided on the problems that have been experienced with this operation.
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- NBC – Decent job; no major mistakes; good clip on the absence of seafloor leakage
- ABC – About what you expect from network news; not entirely accurate, but in the ballpark
- CBS – What event were they talking about? Who prepared the rig, well diagram?
Funnel Cloud?
Posted in accidents, well control incidents | Tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, Gulf of Mexico, maconda, offshore oil, safety, well control | Leave a Comment »
A NOAA report indicates the following (not good):
- Rig is listing 15 degrees
- Most of the oil is burning but there is a slick approximately 2 miles in length. Updated NOAA trajectory analyses suggest that the Northern GOM coast would be at risk, but that it would take more than three days for oil to threaten the shorelines. Weather and current forecast and could of course change.
- Initial attempts to actuate BOPE with the ROV failed.
- A strengthening of winds and seas is predicted by Friday evening. Such weather would put even greater stress of both the vessel and the riser.
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Posted in accidents, well control incidents | Tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, offshore oil, safety, well control | Leave a Comment »
Upstream report on today’s press conference.
Observations:
- The listing DP rig is apparently being held on location solely by the marine riser.
- It sounds like they were cementing (or had cemented) production casing at the time of the incident, and that the surface plug had not yet been set prior to temporarily abandoning the well. Flow could be inside the casing or in the annulus.
- Apparently most of the oil is being released at the top of the riser (estimated rate of 300 bbl/hr) and being ignited. If the riser fails, oil will be released at the seafloor and the spill response will be much more challenging.
- They will attempt to actuate the BOPE with an ROV. This implies that they either were unable to actuate BOPE prior to evacuating or that the actuation was unsuccessful (e.g. shear ram was unable to cut pipe in well bore).
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Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 