- Tough decision looming?: Assuming the well continues to hold pressure and other surveys don’t indicate any anomalies, will they leave the well shut-in or resume flow through the collection systems? This will be an interesting decision.
- Insignificant detail that is probably only of interest to me: Since 1971 when I started tracking blowout data, a relief well has not been required to halt the flow from any drilling blowout in US (Federal) offshore waters. On several occasions, relief wells were initiated but not needed to stop the flow from a well. Since the Macondo flow is now under control, at least at this time, this record appears to have been sustained. A relief well will still, of course, be needed to kill the well, so this is admittedly a nuanced and largely insignificant detail (especially since nearly 3 months were required to shut-in/control the Macondo well).
Posts Tagged ‘offshore oil’
A Couple of Points
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, drilling, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, offshore oil, oil spill, safety, well control on July 16, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Well Integrity Test is ON
Posted in accidents, well control incidents, tagged accidents, blowouts, Deepwater Horizon, Gulf of Mexico, macondo, offshore oil, oil spill, well control, well integrity test on July 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Capping Stack BOP Before Installation on Well
Here we go ……
- Close rams to shut-in flow from the top while allowing flow through choke and kill lines on sides of capping stack.
- Slowly close kill line.
- Slowly close choke line.
- If the pressure holds through all 3 steps, Secretary Chu does a touchdown dance in the BP control room (BOE exclusive :))
Other:
- Operation will be halted every 6 hours to monitor pressure;
- Ongoing ROV monitoring of well and seafloor;
- Remote sensing systems looking for evidence of leakage outside the wellbore;
- Up to a 48 hour process
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 »
- 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.
How important is deepwater Gulf production? You be the judge.
Posted in Offshore Energy - General, oil, tagged Gulf of Mexico, offshore oil on July 10, 2010| 1 Comment »
- 80% of Gulf of Mexico oil production or a quarter of total US production is from leases in greater than 1000 feet of water.
- Per the EIA chart above, a single deepwater Gulf platform (Thunderhorse) surpasses all but four states in oil production. 3 deepwater platforms outproduce all but 3 states.
- Total oil production from deepwater facilities approximates that of the State of Texas.
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!
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.
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?
Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Committee Posts OCS Reform Act
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged legislation, offshore oil, oil spill, safety, Senate Energy and Natural Resources, well control on June 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »
