- 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 ‘macondo’
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 »
NT opposition questions Montara report delays; preliminary Macondo findings?
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, Australia, blowouts, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, Montara, oil spill, safety, well control on July 12, 2010| Leave a Comment »
The Federal Government is unnecessarily delaying the release of a report into last year’s Montara oil spill off Australia’s north coast, the Northern Territory Opposition says.
On a related note, it would be great if preliminary findings from the DOI/DHS Macondo investigation could be released as soon as possible. There is much work to be done and all interested parties (in the US and elsewhere) need the best available information so that they can assess their programs. Better to err on the side of releasing findings to soon with any necessary caveats and disclaimers. In that regard, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce has done a good job of making their findings available without delay.
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.
Montara Vigil Continues, Macondo Relief?, More Regulatory Theory
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged Australia, blowouts, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, Montara, offshore oil, relief well, well control on July 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »
- Montara watch: 19 days have now elapsed since the Montara Inquiry Report was presented to Minister Ferguson, and there are no recent media updates on the release of the report. Meanwhile, Australian radio has a good piece on Montara – long, but worth the time.
- Macondo: The relief well reports continue to be sketchy and inconsistent. On July 4, the Unified Command reported that the primary relief well had reached 17,400′ (presumably measured depth), while BP’s update for the same date indicated that the first well had reached 17,725′ (this too must also be measure depth, not true vertical depth). It’s unclear whether the final casing (9 7/8″ liner) has been set. Admiral Allen will likely provide a better update today.
- More regulatory philosophy: The regulatory system is at least as important as the specific operating requirements. This UNEP piece provides a good summary of the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches.
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.
“Must Read” Article for Regulatory Philosophers
Posted in accidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Helge Ryggvik, macondo, Preben Lindoe, regulatory philosophy, Research Council of Norway, safety, well control on July 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »
While the Norwegian model is built on trust, cooperation, and sharing of experience and information,” asserts Dr Lindøe, “the situation in the USA is nearly the opposite.”
When an accident happens on the Norwegian continental shelf, the parties convene to uncover any weaknesses in systems or routines that contributed to workers making a mistake. There is agreement that this is how to achieve better results, rather than spending resources on finding scapegoats and not bothering to change the systems.
In the aftermath of Deepwater Horizon, MMS has been criticised for having too cozy a relationship with the companies and for having reduced the number of inspections,” says Researcher Helge Ryggvik of the University of Oslo. “Yet its inspection activities are more comprehensive than on the Norwegian continental shelf. And unlike the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway, MMS has its own helicopters and can conduct unannounced inspections.”
This excellent Research Council of Norway article, which discusses some of the differences between the US and Norwegian systems, should be mandatory reading for regulators and operators. Ironically, I made some similar comments to a wind turbine safety committee last week. In assessing the root causes of accidents and the associated equipment and procedural issues, we must not lose sight of the fundamental regulatory objectives and how they can best be achieved.
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.
Bud's Offshore Energy (BOE) 