Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, Lousiana, macondo, marshes, offshore oil, oil spill, well control on August 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »
In the less than 3 week period since Macondo was capped, we have transitioned from “doom and gloom” to “all is well.” What next?
Click to read an interesting USA Today article.
“Oil doesn’t really kill marsh plants,” says John Pardue, director of Louisiana State University’s Hazardous Substance Research Center, who has studied the effects of oil on marshes. “You can put several inches of oil on the vegetation surface and you won’t kill the plants.”
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, offshore oil, oil spill, well control on August 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Those are the latest official numbers provided by the Unified Command’s Scientific Teams. Once again, no assumptions or calculations are provided. Why? What was the range of estimates for the different methods (videos analyses, reservoir modeling, acoustics, and extrapolations based on recovery volumes)? Show us the data!
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, Australia, blowouts, dispersants, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, offshore, offshore oil, oil spill, safety, well control on August 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »
End game mysteries?: As BP prepares for the static kill operation, the well’s flow path is still not clear. While the consensus seems to be that the flow originates in the annulus outside the production casing, irregularities during the cementing and testing of that casing suggest the possibility of flow inside the casing. The condition of the well bore and casing strings is also uncertain. Perhaps of greatest importance will be the inspection of the BOPE after the well is plugged and the stack is pulled. This inspection process should be closely supervised by the regulators.
Press conference etiquette?: After admitting that they joined yesterday’s Unified Command press briefing late, two reporters asked questions that had been answered earlier. Perhaps they think their time is more important than Admiral Allen’s, or that of the other attendees, viewers, and listeners. One of these questioners asked when the static kill operation would begin. Admiral Allen, who answered the question politely and patiently, should have asked when it would be most convenient for the reporter. Surely, the Unified Command would want to accommodate the reporter’s busy schedule. 😉
Dispersants: As has been demonstrated at oil spill workshops and conferences for the past 30 years, you can always stir up passions by questioning the use of dispersants. Dispersants, unlike burning and skimmers, don’t remove oil from the water (at least not directly). The On-Scene Commander (OSC) must consider the tradeoffs and make the decisions that he or she thinks will minimize the net impact of the spill. Given the magnitude of location of the Macondo spill, I think the OSCs made the correct calls. Dispersants were also used (not without controversy of course) in responding to last year’s Montara blowout in the Timor Sea.
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged blowouts, Gulf of Mexico, Jay Grimes, macondo, offshore oil, oil spill, oil weathering, oil-eating bacteria on July 31, 2010| Leave a Comment »
oil-eating bacteria
“When a large amount of oil comes into the environment, then they quickly muster, if you will, and they can sometimes grow to 1,000-fold,” said Jay Grimes, a professor of microbiology at the University of Southern Mississippi.
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, fire, firefighting, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, safety, well control on July 29, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Fighting Deepwater Horizon Fire
This question is receiving a lot of attention since the topic was discussed at the Department of the Interior – Coast Guard investigation.
To the best of my knowledge, this concern was first raised by a one of our very smart and experienced contributors, Dr. Malcolm Sharples, who did not wish to be identified at the time. Malcolm is now comfortable being identified, and I thought I would draw attention to his insightful comment. See item 3 in this 30 April post.
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, safety, well control on July 29, 2010| Leave a Comment »
As promised in “Deepwater is Not the Problem,” comparative performance data for surface and seafloor BOPs follow. Every study and informal review that I have seen has indicated that subsea BOPs are more reliable than surface BOPs. These data are not surprising. Because of the time and cost involved in pulling and repairing subsea stacks, preventive maintenance programs tend to be more comprehensive.
The studies cited below were completed 10+ years ago, but to the best of my knowledge the conclusions are still valid. If there are any more recent studies, BOE would like to hear about them.
Recent data indicate surface BOP reliability is only one-tenth that of subsea BOP equipment.
Subsea BOPs have smaller failure rate than surface BOPs.
SINTEF study: This study is limited to seafloor stacks, and shows there is no difference between failure rates for deepwater and ultra-deepwater wells.
(For wells in >400 m WD) It seems that there is no correlation at all between the failure rate and the downtime related to the water depth.
Sintef Subsea BOP Reliability Study (click to enlarge)
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged Gulf of Mexico, macondo, offshore oil, oil spill, oil weathering, SINTEF on July 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »
The oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico appears to be dissolving far more rapidly than anyone expected, a piece of good news that raises tricky new questions about how fast the government should scale back its response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
A very good article in the New York Times confirms what experienced oil spill observers expected – oil from the Macondo spill is disappearing rapidly as a result of natural processes (see SINTEF diagram below). While marsh and coastal damage could be significant, more oil from Macondo shouldn’t add to those problems.
SINTEF Weathering Diagram
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, Australia, blowouts, BOE, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, Montara, offshore oil, oil spill, relief well, safety, well control, well integrity test on July 27, 2010| 1 Comment »
Water depth is just one well planning consideration. Abnormal pressures and temperatures, shallow gas, hydrogen sulfide, ice, permafrost, storms, currents, extended reach targets, and horizontal completions are some of the others. To prevent another Macondo, in the US or anywhere else in the world, we need to focus our attention on the 3 categories of issues listed below. These issues are important in all water depths and in all environments.
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, ETR, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, safety, well control, well diagram on July 24, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Energy Training and Resources Macondo Well Diagram
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, Marine Well Containment Company, offshore oil, safety, well control on July 24, 2010| 2 Comments »
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 