- Presumably BP is very slowly and carefully shutting in Macondo with the newly installed cap. Wellhead pressures are no doubt being very closely monitored. The strength of the 16″ casing is a concern as is the potenital for creating channels back to the surface. Those types of problems must be avoided.
- How concerned was the BP team about attempting the bottom kill without the sealing cap in place? Is the cap needed to create sufficient back-pressure and reduce the weight requirements for the kill mud? Absent the cap, would the required kill weight be high enough to seriously risk fracturing outside the production casing and causing an underground blowout?
- If BP can successfully shut-in the well, that will of course be fantastic news. However, questions must be raised about the sequence of intervention attempts and the reasons why such a sealing cap wasn’t tried sooner. The more we can minimize the screaming and finger-pointing, the more public and private benefit will be derived from this discussion.
- Can we broker a cease-fire in the moratorium debate and focus our collective energy on addressing the immediate technical and policy issues at hand? In the interim, each well should be carefully considered on a case-by-case basis. Water depth is only one consideration, and may prove to be a relatively minor factor in the Macondo blowout.
- We need to create an environment for leadership, ingenuity, and continuous improvement. The focus has to be on comprehensive safety achievement.
Posts Tagged ‘Deepwater Horizon’
Cap Talk
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, offshore oil, safety, well control on July 13, 2010| Leave a Comment »
BP Details Relief Well Timeline
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, offshore oil, oil spill, relief well, safety, well control on July 9, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Notes:
- Click on the diagram to enlarge
- The 9 7/8″ liner has NOT been run yet.
- Note the cement bond log. 3 months too late?
- Step 2 is to intercept and kill the flow in the annulus. If there is no flow inside the 7″ casing, step 2 will kill the well. This step is scheduled to be completed by the end of July.
- Step 3 will be necessary to make sure the production casing is plugged, even it there is no flow inside that casing.
- The timeframes are understandably conservative.
Thank you Admiral Allen
Posted in accidents, Uncategorized, well control incidents, tagged accidents, admiral allen, blowouts, BOE, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, offshore oil, safety, well control on July 9, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Regarding the relief wells, Development Driller III, which is the lead drilling rig for the relief wells is now at 17,780 feet measured depth, within a couple hundred feet of the proposed penetration point of the wellbore.
Admiral Allen: Thank you for reading BOE and responding to our request. You even specified “measured depth!”
Relief Well Team: Great work! Time to finish the job!
Acoustic switches, etc
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged acoustic BOP, Australia, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, Montara, well control on July 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »
- The big question with regard to acoustic backup systems for BOPs is whether ambient noise associated with a seafloor blowout prevents the signal from being reliably received. The Macondo well would seem to provide an excellent opportunity for testing acoustic systems to see how effectively the signals are received under such challenging conditions. Too late?
- Still no regular relief well reports, but Admiral Allen commented yesterday that they only have about 200′ to drill. I’m assuming the 9 7/8″ liner has been set. If all this is accurate and there are no weather or technical delays, they should be ready to intercept the well bore soon (1-2 weeks?), even with the added time for special ranging and directional surveys.
- Unless the relief well is delayed, it doesn’t seem to make sense to change the LMRP cap at this time. Collection might improve somewhat with the new cap, but the well would be wide open during the change.
- Day 21 since the Montara report was delivered to the Ministry, and there are no recent news updates. No interest?
- Very good article in Platts as the media begins to show more interest in regulatory approaches.
Small Request for the Unified Command
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged Deepwater Horizon, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, relief well, safety, unified command, well control on July 7, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Those of us on the “Deepwater Response External Affairs” Mailing List received ten email updates yesterday. Not one included relief well information. The relief well information that has been provided has been inconsistent and contradictory.
Given the importance of these wells and the apparent confusion among observers (a number of whom have contacted BOE), a daily relief well update would be appreciated, at least for the primary well. It would be helpful if the subject line said “relief well update.” This update should include the precise relief well depth, whether the depth is measured (total length) or true vertical, and the point of reference (e.g. below the sea floor). A short summary of the operations over the past 24 hours would also be helpful.
Preventing Future Blowouts and Limiting their Effects
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged blowouts, Colin Leach, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, safety, well control on July 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »
BOE friend and internationally recognized well control expert Colin Leach has submitted an excellent paper suggesting new procedures that will improve well design and intervention. Click here to read Colin’s paper.
The goal is to eliminate the possibility of what actually could happen not being recognized (at the time of the design). This is achieved by having a core of knowledge against which individual operating companies and outside assessors can assess designs and approaches. Communication between the operator and the “knowledge core”would be confidential as long as a well control incident did not occur. The format of this “knowledge core” is such that it eliminates the “committee think” within an operating company where a dissenting individual (who is actually knowledgeable) can be overruled by a committee vote.
Relief Well Down to 11817′ TVD BOF
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, relief well, safety, well control on July 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »
bottom of the flowing Macondo well
Based on the latest information provided by Admiral Allen, the relief well has reached 11817′ below the sea floor and is thus only 273′ above the 9 7/8″ casing shoe on the flowing Macondo well. After drilling another 200+ feet, they will open (enlarge) the relief well and install a 9 7/8″ liner. They will then drill a few hundred feet beneath the liner and intercept the flowing well. They will presumably kill the flow in the annulus outside the casing (assuming that is a flow path) with heavy mud before milling into the 7″ casing, killing any flow inside that casing, and plugging the well bore with cement. Stay tuned.
Relief Well Fever
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, DD3, Deepwater Horizon, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, relief well, well control on July 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »
DD3
BOE doesn’t really care about where LeBron James chooses to play basketball, but we are big fans of the team on the Development Driller III or DD3. The DD3 crew, some of whom are Deepwater Horizon survivors, is ahead of schedule and predictions for an early intercept and well kill are approaching irrational exuberance levels. This may be the most important well in history, and crew has responded to the challenge.
After the DD3 crew finishes the job, we owe them a victory parade in New Orleans. “Throw me somethin’ mista! 🙂
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, international, Jane Cutler, macondo, Montara, NOPSA, offshore oil, safety, well control on June 30, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Interesting comments from Jane Cutler, CEO of Australia’s National Offshore Safety Petroleum Safety Authority, in NOPSA’s excellent newsletter:
The incidents in the Gulf of Mexico (Deepwater Horizon) and at the Montara wellhead platform are different in many respects, particularly in technical matters. However, they share some common factors prompting regulatory action.
I agree entirely with Ms. Cutler. International regulators and operators must work in concert to address and resolve these issues.
Updates on the relief wells
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, offshore oil, oil spill, relief well, safety, well control on June 29, 2010| Leave a Comment »
BP has released a slide presentation and animation on the relief wells showing the intercept point below the 9 7/8″ casing shoe. The exact sequence of operations once they reach the intercept point will be interesting to observe. They should encounter flow when they reach the 7″ casing annulus (assuming that is a flow path; there still seems to be some uncertainty in that regard). Will they attempt to kill the flow in the annulus before milling into the 7″ casing? Is there flow inside the 7″ casing via channels in the casing shoe? Is there drill pipe inside the casing?
