Oil Spill in the Gulf

docofthebay

docofthebay

New Member
Sep 10, 2009
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Fort Morgan, Mobile Bay Alabama
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36800673/ns/us_news-environment/?GT1=43001
Well I am very upset about this oil spill on a number of different levels.
1st is that the beaches of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle are some of the prettiest in the world and it is now likely that in a few days they will be covered by oil. This will effectively ruin the tourist season, the shrimp industry, and the oyster industry. The recreational, charter and commercial fishing in the area and recreational boating will also be ruined as now one will want to or need to drive their boat thru the mess.
For those that haven’t been here, the beaches are essentially as if God opened up large bags of sugar and poured them on the shore. They truly are beautiful.
It is only now, one week after the spill started, that the Feds are beginning to do anything to help and they are spending more time defending why they waited so long than they are actually spending doing something about it. According to reports, this could easily end up as the second largest oil spill behind the Exxon Valdez debacle and earlier action could have kept this contained or made the burning option more likely to work.
What are the thoughts from some of you who also boat or live on this coast?
 
First and foremost, I feel sad for the people who died and their family and loved ones who are suffering.

I don’t know enough about how the leak is being handled vs how it could have been better handled to comment.

I am concerned with:
- Finding the lost people for their family
- Getting this leak stopped
- Cleaning up the spill
- Worried that this accident will prevent offshore drilling and that this will have significant long term consequences. More laws and such will increase our foreign oil dependency.
Really, there should be a below the bottom gizmo that can be shut off. How stupid that something like this does not already exist.
 
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if they could get the blow-out preventer on the sea floor shut that would help the leak from growing. The malfunction of this is what caused the entire problem in the first place. If it would have been operating properly the fire would have never ensued.
 
I don't get it, when it was first reported, the news said it was not pumping oil, and had hit a natural gas pocket during exploratory drilling.. ????

That sucker hit the bottom hard...
 
Chris R said:
if they could get the blow-out preventer on the sea floor shut that would help the leak from growing. The malfunction of this is what caused the entire problem in the first place. If it would have been operating properly the fire would have never ensued.
Click to expand...

I did not think they knew that for sure, as far as the cause of the explosion/fire. I did read that they think the valve is at least partially, or mostly closed or the leak would be worse.
 
Just in time for the summer boating season. Hello $4.50/gallon gas.
 
They are doing small controlled burning and not having a lot of success at that due to winds and seas. So, no, the sea isn't on fire.

A front has just passed and they are expecting 25-35 kt winds and 7-10 ft seas by the weekend which will for all practical purposed stop any containment effort.
 
I watched The Today Show (NBC) on two consecutive mornings right after the explosion. They were interviewing the Coast Guard person in charge (a female). She was asked point blank and answered the same for two straight days...they had robotic submarines on the scene monitoring the well 24/7 and there was no further leakage. The oil on the water was residual from the platform. What?!?! I haven't seen her on TV since...

And now we hear all this. There should have been a more immediate response to contain what was there. While at sea, it's a whole lot easier to deal with. Now its getting out of hand. It's a shame.

On The Nightly News tonight, they showed off a device required in a couple of European countries that can remote trigger the valve on the sea bottom to close. But the U.S. doesn't require it because the oil companies resisted the $500,000 unit cost. Huh? So they are making multi-billion dollar profits PER QUARTER, yet won't invest in a device for 1/2 a million that might add an additional measure against such a catastrophe.

I'm not one for regulations, but I'm sure this will spur some additional safety requirements for future platforms that may pop up on the east coast, and that's not a bad thing. Just a shame it's going to take something like this to make it happen.

Tom
 
I agree, the company or any oil rig in the water should have been forced to remote shut down of the preventer. The oil companies are making money hand over fist and should be made to have great disaster recovery plans that work.
 
You may have heard the news in the last few days about the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig which caught fire, burned for two days, then
sank in 5,000 ft of water in the Gulf of Mexico. There are still 11 men missing, and they are not expected to be found.
The rig belongs to Transocean, the world’s biggest offshore drilling contractor. The rig was originally contracted through the year 2013 to
BP and was working on BP’s Macondo exploration well when the fire broke out. The rig costs about $500,000 per day to contract. The full
drilling spread, with helicopters and support vessels and other services, will cost closer to $1,000,000 per day to operate in the course of
drilling for oil and gas. The rig cost about $350,000,000 to build in 2001 and would cost at least double that to replace today.
The rig represents the cutting edge of drilling technology. It is a floating rig, capable of working in up to 10,000 ft water depth. The rig is
not moored; It does not use anchors because it would be too costly and too heavy to suspend this mooring load from the floating
structure. Rather, a triply-redundant computer system uses satellite positioning to control powerful thrusters that keep the rig on station
within a few feet of its intended location, at all times. This is called Dynamic Positioning.
The rig had apparently just finished cementing steel casing in place at depths exceeding 18,000 ft. The next operation was to suspend the
well so that the rig could move to its next drilling location, the idea being that a rig would return to this well later in order to complete the
work necessary to bring the well into production.
It is thought that somehow formation fluids – oil /gas – got into the wellbore and were undetected until it was too late to take action. With a
floating drilling rig setup, because it moves with the waves, currents, and winds, all of the main pressure control equipment sits on the
seabed – the uppermost unmoving point in the well. This pressure control equipment – the Blowout Preventers, or ‘BOP’s” as they’re
called, are controlled with redundant systems from the rig. In the event of a serious emergency, there are multiple Panic Buttons to hit,
and even fail-safe Deadman systems that should be automatically engaged when something of this proportion breaks out. None of them
were aparently activated, suggesting that the blowout was especially swift to escalate at the surface. The flames were visible up to about
35 miles away. Not the glow – the flames. They were 200 – 300 ft high.
All of this will be investigated and it will be some months before all of the particulars are known. For now, it is enough to say that this
marvel of modern technology, which had been operating with an excellent safety record, has burned up and sunk taking souls with it.
The well still is apparently flowing oil, which is appearing at the surface as a slick. They have been working with remotely operated
vehicles, or ROV’s which are essentially tethered miniature submarines with manipulator arms and other equipment that can perform work
underwater while the operator sits on a vessel. These are what were used to explore the Titanic, among other things. Every floating rig
has one on board and they are in constant use. In this case, they are deploying ROV’s from dedicated service vessels. They have been
trying to close the well in using a specialized port on the BOP’s and a pumping arrangement on their ROV’s. They have been unsuccessful
so far. Specialized pollution control vessels have been scrambled to start working the spill, skimming the oil up.
In the coming weeks they will move in at least one other rig to drill a fresh well that will intersect the blowing one at its pay zone. They will
use technology that is capable of drilling from a floating rig, over 3 miles deep to an exact specific point in the earth – with a target radius
of just a few feet plus or minus. Once they intersect their target, a heavy fluid will be pumped that exceeds the formation’s pressure, thus
causing the flow to cease and rendering the well safe at last. It will take at least a couple of months to get this done, bringing all available
technology to bear. It will be an ecological disaster if the well flows all of the while; Optimistically, it could bridge off downhole.
It’s a sad day when something like this happens to any rig, but even more so when it happens to something on the cutting edge of our​
capabilities.
 
This is a tradegy. We can't afford the clean up nor can we afford not to try although I doubt it's even possible. I believe BP should be responsible for the clean up, as well as reimbursing those who will be effected... we've canceled our annual week vacation in the Destin area- think about all of the property owners!

If you look at this map you'll see the slick spreading day by day.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8651333.stm
 
sean257 said:
I did not think they knew that for sure, as far as the cause of the explosion/fire. I did read that they think the valve is at least partially, or mostly closed or the leak would be worse.
Click to expand...

I'm not going to pretend to be an arm chair quarter back on this, but I know that the blow-out preventer is "supposed" to clamp shut in the event of a gas blow back. Aside from the fact that once the rig began to sink, it pulled the entire drill column with it- and from what I hear, this is complicating the shut off of the flow at the well head.

Many years ago, I spent a lot of time on land and offshore drilling operations.

No matter what- this is a mess.
 
I guess this just illustrates that mechanical devices can{and do} fail. This solidifies the debate about offshore drilling off the B.C. coast. All the assurances from the oil companies mean nothing when something like this happens. I truly feel for the families of the rig workers , and the folks living along the coast.
 
Most of what is said is true....The BOPs should have worked, but didn't, and yes, the Europeans require some safety devices that we don't use here in the States. But, guess what? BP is going to have to foot the bill for this unfortunate accident. They will pay through the nose (as they should) until it's fixed. Fortunately, they can afford it.

This will pass....the beaches and rock shoreline will be the first to heal, but the marshes of LA will take a while. The seafood and tourism industries will take a big hit if the crude gets to the beaches...and I hate it as well. I just returned from Orange Beach, AL, and we have several members on this forum that boat there. This could ruin vacation rentals in the area like Ivan did in 2004.

The relief well, if they drill one, will take 2 months to plug, but depending on the formation, this well may sand over and plug itself....pray for that. Mother nature has a way of recovering pretty well......
 
I have been in the piping industry most of my life and have studied this problem in an effort to understand it. It is mind boggling to me that talented petroleum engineers have not come up with a remedy for this.

I have and have had my crews repair large water main breaks under pressure in flooded deep trenches. Granted...they have not been 5K feet deep in the GOM but the basic mechanics still apply.

Seems to me if we have a damaged well head that has sheared off or broken off somewhere near the ocean floor it could be repaired. Steps would follow a logical sequence of cutting off what is existing as squarely as possible, use a "Dresser" type slip coupling adapter to join a new section of pipe with an open valve attached to it. Once attached and secured...slowly close the valve.:huh:

I realize the logistics of doing this at a mile deep add an extra degree of difficulty but this idea seems to make sense to me.
 
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