If they are not reaching equilibrium then it is simply because they don’t have either enough rate or enough weight. If they shut in last night at midnight I guarantee you they got enough rate. If this thing’s been spitting out mud all day then they don’t have enough weight. My Goodness can’t they figure that out? [QUOTE=alvis;33894]If I read between the lines, they think they may not be able to reach an equilibrium in the well bore, so they want to do a junk shot so when they inject the cement, it won’t leak out the riser.[/QUOTE]
If I read anything that rpeorts they used the same weight mud they had in the hole to begin with, I’m gonna find out who the engineer was that came up with that crap & go backhand the crap out of him.
The reporting is remarkably bad.
Here are some questions in case a journalist may be lurking:
When exactly did you start pumping and when did you stop?
What pressure did you start pumping at? What pressure when you stopped?
Could you tell us the weight of the mud you were pumping?
We understand that one of the ships ran out of mud last night, could you tell us which ship that was and how much mud you pumped last night? Could you tell us how much mud total you have pumped between starting and stopping this procedure?
Are you pumping more than you started or less?
[QUOTE=alvis;33878]Being a non-oil guy, why couldn’t they do something like that? if the well for some reason blew out after they had removed the riser and LMRP, what would be the difference between then and when the stack had the LMRP and riser? From the looks of it, if the well blew with the LMRP and leaky riser on the BOP, it would probably lay the riser wide open so that it wouldn’t provide any flow restriction. So the two outcomes would be in effect equal.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=company man 1;33877]One dangerous, but sure fire kill option would be if the flow stops & the well is dead to remove the whole stack above the lines & place a set of blind rams on top with the well static & pump the cement through a good stack to ensure this thing dead. I bet you haven’t heard that one yet.
Edit: Did the smartest guys in the world think of that & if so why aren’t we smart enough to hear it?[/QUOTE]
I’m still unclear what is in this well. Is there any tooling stuck in the BOP?
Even if there are no complications like that, I’m sure they have this as a backup plan. They are obviously proceeding with caution since if you take components off the wellhead, you don’t know what can of worms you are opening.
The devil you know…
I believe I can answer one of those. I seem to have read or heard that they would have 40,000 BBl.s of barite on board. Did not give mud weight. Can you believe we have been watching that thing blow mud for 16 hours & someone is trying to sell 20,000 BBls./ day now? You know good & well that thing is spewing atleast as much out of the stack as it is out of the riser.[QUOTE=CPTdrillersails;33896]The reporting is remarkably bad.
Here are some questions in case a journalist may be lurking:
When exactly did you start pumping and when did you stop?
What pressure did you start pumping at? What pressure when you stopped?
Could you tell us the weight of the mud you were pumping?
We understand that one of the ships ran out of mud last night, could you tell us which ship that was and how much mud you pumped last night? Could you tell us how much mud total you have pumped between starting and stopping this procedure?
Are you pumping more than you started or less?[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=company man 1;33885]I will ask again, have these guys figured for the difference in weight needed to account for the loss of the riser?[/QUOTE]
CM1, You got me thinking on this. As a boundary case, let’s assume a static condition, no flow, and no choke on the seafloor mud manifold/skid. In this case, I believe the static pressure would reflect the 5000 ft of mud pressure weight in the mud pipe from the seafloor mud skid to the frac boats. Under no flow conditions, I believe a 1 inch diameter pipe to the surface and a 21 inch pipe would both generate the same gravitational pressure head in psi at the seafloor.
Now with mud flowing in small lines, there is the frictional loss which will eat pressure head. I assume they figured this out with the main pipe/hose from the frac boat to the skid so that the flow velocity in the pipe is manageable. Then we have the friction loss in the 3 inch hoses, valves etc, until the mud hits the well bore. I am assuming they have computer codes to figure the frictional flow losses to pressure head… at least I sure hope they didn’t miss that!
Of course if the mud skid is choking or regulating the flow, that would be the determining pressure.
Disclaimer: I am no oil man, just a physicist trying to learn like all the rest of us. Corrections appreciated.
The only danger is if they ever get the weight up high enough to kill this thing, is if it were to go from static or on a vaccuum to flowing again, they would have a hell of atime getting a set of blinds on it. If they have this as a back up plan then why haven’t they mentioned it? It doesn’t matter what’s stuck in the hole you shear what’s on top & sting off the lower stack with the upper stack. Then shear whatever’s in the way of stinging on top with another set of rams. I guarantee you no one thought of it until about an hour or so ago when it was posted on this sight by the pseudo company man.[QUOTE=CPTdrillersails;33897]I’m still unclear what is in this well. Is there any tooling stuck in the BOP?
Even if there are no complications like that, I’m sure they have this as a backup plan. They are obviously proceeding with caution since if you take components off the wellhead, you don’t know what can of worms you are opening.
The devil you know…[/QUOTE]
Your thinking right but there is a flaw in your thinking that I think they are not taking into account. While they are pumping, the pressure of the hose going to the boat is in play, but as soon as they shut it off it is the resevoir versus the stack plus the hydrostatic head of the gulf at that depth. Let’s say they are pumping 14.3 & getting good Injection rates. When they back off of those rates the well immediately sees the difference of 5067’ of 14.3 versus 8.7 PPG. This would be a difference of… gotta pull my shoes off again… of… 1475 PSI, which coincidentally was real close to the final recorded pressure on 4/20/10 on DWH.[QUOTE=bigmoose;33899]CM1, You got me thinking on this. As a boundary case, let’s assume a static condition, no flow, and no choke on the seafloor mud manifold/skid. In this case, I believe the static pressure would reflect the 5000 ft of mud pressure weight in the mud pipe from the seafloor mud skid to the frac boats. Under no flow conditions, I believe a 1 inch diameter pipe to the surface and a 21 inch pipe would both generate the same gravitational pressure head in psi at the seafloor.
Now with mud flowing in small lines, there is the frictional loss which will eat pressure head. I assume they figured this out with the main pipe/hose from the frac boat to the skid so that the flow velocity in the pipe is manageable. Then we have the friction loss in the 3 inch hoses, valves etc, until the mud hits the well bore. I am assuming they have computer codes to figure the frictional flow losses to pressure head… at least I sure hope they didn’t miss that!
Of course if the mud skid is choking or regulating the flow, that would be the determining pressure.
Disclaimer: I am no oil man, just a physicist trying to learn like all the rest of us. Corrections appreciated.[/QUOTE]
In other words, they have to wieght up a total of 1475 PSI over the original ud weight or they will never kill this well. Assuming a straight hole they would need 16.4 PPG. I noted in an earlier post they should go with 17 PPG to ensure kill.[QUOTE=bigmoose;33899]CM1, You got me thinking on this. As a boundary case, let’s assume a static condition, no flow, and no choke on the seafloor mud manifold/skid. In this case, I believe the static pressure would reflect the 5000 ft of mud pressure weight in the mud pipe from the seafloor mud skid to the frac boats. Under no flow conditions, I believe a 1 inch diameter pipe to the surface and a 21 inch pipe would both generate the same gravitational pressure head in psi at the seafloor.
Now with mud flowing in small lines, there is the frictional loss which will eat pressure head. I assume they figured this out with the main pipe/hose from the frac boat to the skid so that the flow velocity in the pipe is manageable. Then we have the friction loss in the 3 inch hoses, valves etc, until the mud hits the well bore. I am assuming they have computer codes to figure the frictional flow losses to pressure head… at least I sure hope they didn’t miss that!
Of course if the mud skid is choking or regulating the flow, that would be the determining pressure.
Disclaimer: I am no oil man, just a physicist trying to learn like all the rest of us. Corrections appreciated.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=company man 1;33900]The only danger is if they ever get the weight up high enough to kill this thing, is if it were to go from static or on a vaccuum to flowing again, they would have a hell of atime getting a set of blinds on it. If they have this as a back up plan then why haven’t they mentioned it? It doesn’t matter what’s stuck in the hole you shear what’s on top & sting off the lower stack with the upper stack. Then shear whatever’s in the way of stinging on top with another set of rams. I guarantee you no one thought of it until about an hour or so ago when it was posted on this sight by the pseudo company man.[/QUOTE]
In the press conference, Doug said that if the top kill doesn’t work, they would implement the next backup which would be the cap. If the cap didn’t work out, he talked as if placing another BOP on top of the BOP would be next in line.
Hello I’m new and don’t know much about this business… My question is, is what happened to the original hydraulic lines that had the capability to shut down this bop? Would it have been realistic to think that they could run new ones to it and try to shut it down that way? Or is that beyond the limits of the ROV?
Apologies if this has been discussed before but I’ve spent hours reading most of the posts, and haven’t seen it addressed.
CM1,
Thanks for your intelligent and colorful comments. Question: Is it even in the realm of possibility that they stopped pumping because of lack of barite or mud on site? I’m guessing that stopping would be wasteful of time and mud because what has already been pumped gets pushed out/lost and will have to be replaced later. They can weight up while pumping, right?
He knows what that encompasses & he knows if this thing is flowing full bore the odds of achieving that are almost impossible. That’s mighty big talk & don’t mean doodley squat. However, if they get this thing static where they can just unhook a hose & feed mud into it while they work, it is very doable, but I haven’t heard him mention it. I understand that you can not see the forrest for the trees sometimes, but if they get this thing static they need to replace the stack & then pump cement. I may even come out of hiding so he can send me a check.[QUOTE=alvis;33904]In the press conference, Doug said that if the top kill doesn’t work, they would implement the next backup which would be the cap. If the cap didn’t work out, he talked as if placing another BOP on top of the BOP would be next in line.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Bob S;33907]CM1,
Thanks for your intelligent and colorful comments. Question: Is it even in the realm of possibility that they stopped pumping because of lack of barite or mud on site? I’m guessing that stopping would be wasteful of time and mud because what has already been pumped gets pushed out/lost and will have to be replaced later. They can weight up while pumping, right?[/QUOTE]
I don’t mean to interrupt company man 1. Doug mentioned that they didn’t run out of mud and that they pumped in two cycles; started at 1:00 yesterday, then stopped, then started again and stopped at midnight.
Well, here is some info:
The “top kill” effort, launched Wednesday afternoon by industry and government engineers, had pumped enough drilling fluid to block oil and gas spewing from the well, Allen said. The pressure from the well was very low, he said, but persisting. The top kill effort is not complete, officials caution.
Once engineers had reduced the well pressure to zero, they were to begin pumping cement into the hole to entomb the well. To help in that effort, he said, engineers also were pumping some debris into the blowout preventer at the top of the well.As of early Thursday morning, neither government nor BP officials had declared the effort a success yet, pending the completion of the cementing and sealing of the well.
Allen said one ship that was pumping fluid into the well had run out of the fluid, or “mud,” and that a second ship was on the way. He said he was encouraged by the progress.
BP began pumping a substance called “kill mud” into the well Wednesday about 1 p.m. after receiving approval from Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry, the federal on-scene coordinator for the spill.
By the end of the day, the company had pumped about 7,000 barrels of mud into the well at up to 65 barrels per minute, Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer said.
What they mean by “end of the day” is unclear. But say they mean midnight, that means 7000 barrels in 11 hours, so about 15000 bls/day, but that doesn’t jive with the “one ship ran out of mud and another was on the way”, and that statement doesn’t jive with what Kent Wells of BP very carefully describes here, where primary pumping vessel HOS Centerline has 30,000bls/mud on board, Blue Dolphin has 11000bbls on board and is on station, and STIM Star with 9000 bls and yet another storage vessel with 31,000 are also on station. That’s 80,000 barrels of mud on station without having to have “a second ship on the way”. Jesus, the ships are ALL ON STATION!
[QUOTE=Bob S;33907]CM1,
Thanks for your intelligent and colorful comments. Question: Is it even in the realm of possibility that they stopped pumping because of lack of barite or mud on site? I’m guessing that stopping would be wasteful of time and mud because what has already been pumped gets pushed out/lost and will have to be replaced later. They can weight up while pumping, right?[/QUOTE]
They should certainly be able to weight up while pumping. The question is did they only order mixed mud without any weight material? No use to stop pumping except to record pressures & confirm that by flow they were definitely getting mud well into the formation. One thing about it. If they are willing to spend the money, they can keep pumping mud & flowing it back insted of solid oil. that is one way of containment, but I would sell any BP stock pronto.
Sounds like a little more than 7000 Bbls. to me. Like I said, I smell a skunk in the wood pile & it’s stinking to high heaven.[QUOTE=CPTdrillersails;33910]Well, here is some info:
What they mean by “end of the day” is unclear. But say they mean midnight, that means 7000 barrels in 11 hours, so about 15000 bls/day, but that doesn’t jive with the “one ship ran out of mud and another was on the way”, and that statement doesn’t jive with what Kent Wells of BP very carefully describes here, where primary pumping vessel HOS Centerline has 30,000bls/mud on board, Blue Dolphin has 11000bbls on board and is on station, and STIM Star with 9000 bls and storage vessel with 31,000 are also on station.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=alvis;33909]I don’t mean to interrupt company man 1. Doug mentioned that they didn’t run out of mud and that they pumped in two cycles; started at 1:00 yesterday, then stopped, then started again and stopped at midnight.[/QUOTE]
I believe they had to wait on weight. I’m betting they started with 14.3 & are getting spike mud on board to get all the mud to 16-17 PPG. Make no mistake these guys are a bunch of dummies & I don’t know how they tie their shoes without tying them together in the morning, but I still like their chances of killing this thing if the stack holds out long enough.
Edit: How’s that for a positive post? Thank you Jesus for saving us from ourselves.
[QUOTE=company man 1;33868]Newsflash: Fox news: "There is mud being pumped into the well bore & it is being monitored, said Admiral Thad allen. “BP first used estimates of 1000 BBLS. /day then 5000 BBLS/day. I said all along I didn’t put any credence into those estimates.” Gee, I wonder when & where he said that? Can anyone post a link, source, quote, anything that suggest that?[/QUOTE]
I posted this news flash around 1500 hours this afternoon. Admiral Thad Allen was on Fox News live. Then Doug Settles came out about an hour ago & said that BP hasn’t been pumping since midnight last night. So if BP quit pumping without the Coast Guard’s knowledge last night, is it not possible they were pumping yesterday morning between 7:45 & 9:45 without the Coast Guard’s knowledge? HMM?
All you snipers out there still buying into BP’s BS, feel free to print your apologies below.
Being cynical here. Sounds like bp believes it is more economical to let crude ‘spill’ into the gulf than to pump less harmful mud into the gulf. Regarding that sell bp suggestion. Check.
I don’t even know if this is a plausible scenario… If the casing is blown and mud is leaking into the formation around the well bore, how would this impact their operations?