[QUOTE=company man 1;34109]Thanks. is the Dolphin pumping ? You can really see the difference in their stacks if they are.[/QUOTE]
The Dolphin is smoking heavy and it’s not due to holding position because it’s slick calm with hardly any current.
Let’s think through the chess game before us.
BP stopped Development Driller II progress to prepare the DDII BOP to be put on the DWH blow out well. (I think that is the story)
Would this not imply that the riser cut off and “beanie cap” with riser to the surface may not be the next step?
If BP cuts the riser and drill pipe at the crimp, can the LMRP be hydraulically released and removed by the ROV’s “easily”? How to deal with drill pipe still “clenched” by the damaged BOP that extends through the LMRP.
Then can the DD II BOP be “adapted” with the hydraulic clamp that is standard on the LMRP so that BOP II can be hydraulically mated to the top of the damaged BOP I?
If you are going to remove the LMRP and add a second BOP. Would it be optimum to do it right after you pumped all the mud you could, and slowed things down as much as you could? Is there an optimum timing issue before us?
Final question, if you have to do bolts/studs/nuts how does the ROV start the nuts on studs?
Thanks for putting up with me gents…
So … What’s the best possible case for the relief well?
--bks[QUOTE=stevenPensacola;33986]I watched T. Boone Pickens on Larry King last night…he said that when an airplane crashes due to pilot error, we don’t ground every plane in the sky.[/QUOTE]
I always said T. Boone was a wise man!
[QUOTE=MichaelWSmith;34116]Fascinating technical discussion. My thanks to all who have contributed.
My question for those of you familiar with deep water drilling. At a press conference I saw several days ago, BP CEO Tony Hayward expressed great confidence that the relief wells would work. Is that confidence justified? And if so, how do they go about finding a fairly small diameter hole with another well coming in from the side? Do they have some sort of sonar-like technology for “seeing” into the rock formation in which they are drilling?
[/QUOTE]
Excellent question. There are several companies who specialize in this sort of thing. When they first said they were going to intercept, I googled the idea and found several descriptions. In essence, since there is a metal pipe in the hole, all they need to do is send an AC current through it and it will generate a nagnetic field. Modern drilling technology is good enough to get to within about 100 feet of the old borehole and then they can use the magnetic field to geosteer into it. One company web site listed a job where they geosteered to parallel an earlier well at an offset of roughly 4 inches for 150 feet and then they perforated into the other wellbore for a sudden kill.
Since we’re on a subject dear to my heart, I will also point out why the wells have to go so deep before intercepting the blowout. The mud weight is a delicate balance between keeping the fluids in the formation on one hand and not fracturing the rock on the other. Since the blowout is deep and high pressure, the intercepting well needs to be drilling with sufficiently dense mud that it, too, will not blow out when it intersects the other well. The ideal depth of interception is the depth at which you can safely drill with that denser mud without fracturing the surrounding rocks. In this case it looks like around 16,000 feet, or 11,000 feet below the seabed. At tonight’s press conference they said they were at roughly 11,000 from the sea surface now, so they have covered 6000 of the needed 11,000 feet below the seafloor (since they are in 5000 feet of water). As they go down the going will get tougher as the rocks get more compacted, so don’t just extrapolate the days. It will get even slower still when they get close and need to geosteer for an intercept. They predicted 90 days and say they are “at or just ahead of schedule”.
This does not appear to be the same video that Bigmoose posted this morning. It was taken at the same time, but appears to be from a different ROV. In your video there are pieces of what appears to be some kind of fiberglass substance? & even a small piece of rope is distinguishable. In the video posted by Bigmoose this morning which the times are very close in concurrance there are definitely pieces of cement falling thought the water. Your video the debris is getting swirled around in th current & is brownish in color. In his video the chunks are smal medium & very large. they also weren’t being caught in the current like your video & they are very white in color. Cement that has been set in casing will be either very grey or white. That is the best I can do. My concern is the giant plum that erupts from below the riser that was not there yesterday. It has erupted during evident pumping operations as confirmed by person onlocation. But has also erupted when pumping has not occured & color has changed back & forth sometimes dramatically. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEKmYWErGy4
[I]“Video of what appears to be an explosion and flying debris taken by the BP live blowout cam around 8am ET.”[/I]
This is the best video I myself have seen to raise my concerns over failure, which was high to begin with. At 2:50 I notice large chunks of what appear to be concrete fragments falling like shrapnel from a shell burst. Expert opinion or comentary would be appreciated. All I know is what it looks like to my eyes and imagination.[/QUOTE]
Thanks chief. That is 130 BPM capacity. Can you tell if Stem Star is close enough to be hooked up & smoking of just standing by?[QUOTE=AHTS Master;34118]The Dolphin is smoking heavy and it’s not due to holding position because it’s slick calm with hardly any current.[/QUOTE]
goedude are you in directional drilling or a geologist, mud man, etc.?[QUOTE=geodude;34122]Excellent question. There are several companies who specialize in this sort of thing. When they first said they were going to intercept, I googled the idea and found several descriptions. In essence, since there is a metal pipe in the hole, all they need to do is send an AC current through it and it will generate a nagnetic field. Modern drilling technology is good enough to get to within about 100 feet of the old borehole and then they can use the magnetic field to geosteer into it. One company web site listed a job where they geosteered to parallel an earlier well at an offset of roughly 4 inches for 150 feet and then they perforated into the other wellbore for a sudden kill.
Since we’re on a subject dear to my heart, I will also point out why the wells have to go so deep before intercepting the blowout. The mud weight is a delicate balance between keeping the fluids in the formation on one hand and not fracturing the rock on the other. Since the blowout is deep and high pressure, the intercepting well needs to be drilling with sufficiently dense mud that it, too, will not blow out when it intersects the other well. The ideal depth of interception is the depth at which you can safely drill with that denser mud without fracturing the surrounding rocks. In this case it looks like around 16,000 feet, or 11,000 feet below the seabed. At tonight’s press conference they said they were at roughly 11,000 from the sea surface now, so they have covered 6000 of the needed 11,000 feet below the seafloor (since they are in 5000 feet of water). As they go down the going will get tougher as the rocks get more compacted, so don’t just extrapolate the days. It will get even slower still when they get close and need to geosteer for an intercept. They predicted 90 days and say they are “at or just ahead of schedule”.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=bigmoose;34119]Let’s think through the chess game before us.
BP stopped Development Driller II progress to prepare the DDII BOP to be put on the DWH blow out well. (I think that is the story)
Would this not imply that the riser cut off and “beanie cap” with riser to the surface may not be the next step?
If BP cuts the riser and drill pipe at the crimp, can the LMRP be hydraulically released and removed by the ROV’s “easily”? How to deal with drill pipe still “clenched” by the damaged BOP that extends through the LMRP.
Then can the DD II BOP be “adapted” with the hydraulic clamp that is standard on the LMRP so that BOP II can be hydraulically mated to the top of the damaged BOP I?
If you are going to remove the LMRP and add a second BOP. Would it be optimum to do it right after you pumped all the mud you could, and slowed things down as much as you could? Is there an optimum timing issue before us?
Final question, if you have to do bolts/studs/nuts how does the ROV start the nuts on studs?
Thanks for putting up with me gents…[/QUOTE]
There’s no way the DDII is gonna run riser down to a blowing well. The best hope is hot stabbing a set of blinds on top & this aint gonna happen without this well being static. This is part of the unchecked psycobabble from Settles.
[QUOTE=company man 1;34123]This does not appear to be the same video that Bigmoose posted this morning. It was taken at the same time, but appears to be from a different ROV. In your video there are pieces of what appears to be some kind of fiberglass substance? & even a small piece of rope is distinguishable. In the video posted by Bigmoose this morning which the times are very close in concurrance there are definitely pieces of cement falling thought the water. Your video the debris is getting swirled around in th current & is brownish in color. In his video the chunks are smal medium & very large. they also weren’t being caught in the current like your video & they are very white in color. Cement that has been set in casing will be either very grey or white. That is the best I can do. My concern is the giant plum that erupts from below the riser that was not there yesterday. It has erupted during evident pumping operations as confirmed by person onlocation. But has also erupted when pumping has not occured & color has changed back & forth sometimes dramatically. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEKmYWErGy4
[I]“Video of what appears to be an explosion and flying debris taken by the BP live blowout cam around 8am ET.”[/I]
This is the best video I myself have seen to raise my concerns over failure, which was high to begin with. At 2:50 I notice large chunks of what appear to be concrete fragments falling like shrapnel from a shell burst. Expert opinion or comentary would be appreciated. All I know is what it looks like to my eyes and imagination.[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]
Wouldn’t shallow casing failures or cement failures as you suggest be catastrophic here? I can’t understand how it could blow pieces like that and then stop. What force is driving the cement outward? It would be the pressure from the oil/mud right? Where there’s thunder there’s lightening. If we see cement, why aren’t we seeing oil/mud escaping around the well head?
Because the ROV is probably about 60 feet above the casing head where this is blowing & appears positioned opposite of the blow? The plume is very visible at times & sometimes clouds out the view of the camera.[QUOTE=alvis;34128][/QUOTE]
Wouldn’t shallow casing failures or cement failures as you suggest be catastrophic here? I can’t understand how it could blow pieces like that and then stop. What force is driving the cement outward? It would be the pressure from the oil/mud right? Where there’s thunder there’s lightening. If we see cement, why aren’t we seeing oil/mud escaping around the well head?[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=geodude;34122]Excellent question. There are several companies who specialize in this sort of thing. When they first said they were going to intercept, I googled the idea and found several descriptions. In essence, since there is a metal pipe in the hole, all they need to do is send an AC current through it and it will generate a nagnetic field. Modern drilling technology is good enough to get to within about 100 feet of the old borehole and then they can use the magnetic field to geosteer into it. One company web site listed a job where they geosteered to parallel an earlier well at an offset of roughly 4 inches for 150 feet and then they perforated into the other wellbore for a sudden kill.
Since we’re on a subject dear to my heart, I will also point out why the wells have to go so deep before intercepting the blowout. The mud weight is a delicate balance between keeping the fluids in the formation on one hand and not fracturing the rock on the other. Since the blowout is deep and high pressure, the intercepting well needs to be drilling with sufficiently dense mud that it, too, will not blow out when it intersects the other well. The ideal depth of interception is the depth at which you can safely drill with that denser mud without fracturing the surrounding rocks. In this case it looks like around 16,000 feet, or 11,000 feet below the seabed. At tonight’s press conference they said they were at roughly 11,000 from the sea surface now, so they have covered 6000 of the needed 11,000 feet below the seafloor (since they are in 5000 feet of water). As they go down the going will get tougher as the rocks get more compacted, so don’t just extrapolate the days. It will get even slower still when they get close and need to geosteer for an intercept. They predicted 90 days and say they are “at or just ahead of schedule”.[/QUOTE]
I worked as a geologist on a directional drilling job Environmental Crossings was working on installing a 4-foot diameter natural gas pipeline. The first mile long 12-inch diameter pilot hole went under a train overpass, a hundred feet deep under the road under the overpass and hit the 2-inch target stake at the surface dead-on. The next pipeline hole went 1.5 miles under a river, it also hit the stake they were using as its proposed outfall.
That was ten years ago…
This should be interesting;
NOAA Surveys Proposed New Ship Anchorage Site for Vessel Decontamination
Key contact numbers
• Report oiled shoreline or request volunteer information: (866) 448-5816
• Submit alternative response technology, services or products: (281) 366-5511
• Submit your vessel for the Vessel of Opportunity Program: (281) 366-5511
• Submit a claim for damages: (800) 440-0858
• Report oiled wildlife: (866) 557-1401 Deepwater Horizon Incident
Joint Information Center
Phone: (985) 902-5231
(985) 902-5240
Contact: Teri Frady
(508) 495-2239
ROBERT, La. - NOAA has begun work to survey a new ship anchorage site at the mouth of the Mississippi River in the Gulf of Mexico for ships to undergo inspection and oil decontamination before entering ports.
The contract magnetometer survey of a proposed alternate anchorage site would ensure the safety of ships, their crew, and the marine environment by making sure that there are no buried pipelines in the proposed area that would be ruptured by ships lowering their anchors. NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey is working with the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Navy to establish the alternative anchorage area.
Keeping maritime commerce going is important to many businesses, such as farmers who need to export their crops through the Gulf ports and the millions of stores throughout the country that rely on a constant flow of imports.
The survey will take place at the Southwest Pass, the primary deep draft entrance to the Mississippi, which is used extensively by ships bringing commercial goods to the U.S. The Lower Mississippi River ports are important players in the billion-dollar U.S. maritime economy.
Once the area is surveyed and the U.S. Coast Guard gives clearance, ships needing hull inspections for oil contamination from the ongoing spill could use this anchorage area for waiting.
So that work can start immediately, NOAA awarded the task order to C&C Technologies of Lafayette, La., under the agency’s existing hydrographic services contract. The team from C&C Technologies will deploy aboard a vessel under the command of the Naval Oceanographic Office. The results should be provided to the U.S. Coast Guard by June 1 at the latest, and possibly earlier. NOAA will update its navigational products based on the results of this survey and the Coast Guard’s determination of the area’s suitability as an anchorage location.
The Lower Mississippi River ports export over 50 million metric tons of corn, soybeans and wheat each year, more than 55 percent of all U.S. grains inspected for shipment. Grain market participants and Midwestern farmers need efficient port operations to export product, as do segments of the economy that rely on timely import arrivals. NOAA’s work in ensuring efficient maritime transportation during this ecological crisis is key to a healthy U.S. economy.
NOAA is also developing new chart products for Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill response. While NOAA’s nautical charts are essential for safe navigation throughout the oil spill region, the agency continues to respond to specific charting requests that meet response needs. NOAA cartographers are supplying coastline contour data – depicting underwater surfaces – needed for planning boom placement. NOAA is also producing special nautical charts depicting points for water testing.
NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Visit us at http://www.noaa.gov or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/usnoaagov.
On the Web:
NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey
http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/
NOAA’s Nautical Charts of Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/staff/headline-oilspill.html
NOAA’s Physical Oceanographic Real-Time Tide System for the Lower Mississippi River
http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/ports/index.shtml?port=lm
For information about the response effort, visit www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com.
[QUOTE=company man 1;34127]There’s no way the DDII is gonna run riser down to a blowing well. The best hope is hot stabbing a set of blinds on top & this aint gonna happen without this well being static. This is part of the unchecked psycobabble from Settles.[/QUOTE]
CM1 - Thanks for all your info. I probably should let people know I’m a geologist (and a cpt driller) and have worked on just about every kind of drilling EXCEPT for petroleum. You guys lingo is definitely specific. Could you describe hot-stabbing and blinds? If you looked at the bp guys video he describes this LMRP cap process and I’m trying to get a handle on that. My understanding is they are going to cut the riser off just above the BOP and install this seal across that surface. I don’t understand why they don’t run a (vented) tapered tool into the riser. Or at least I didn’t understand until I found out that they also have drill rod stuck in the riser, so they have to essentially cut 2 steel pipes, the riser and the drill rod “rattling” around inside it, when they get done with that, they will have a pipe within a pipe, both cut off flush both exploding with oil, sand, gas, methane hydrate, rock debris, metal shards, etc… Still, a tool could be fabricated that would fit between the riser and drill rod, or even [I]over[/I] the riser. What do you think?
Not a happy situation.
We just saw another shower of brown chunks. Looks more like shuttle foam to me…
[QUOTE=CPTdrillersails;34131]I worked as a geologist on a directional drilling job Environmental Crossings was working on installing a 4-foot diameter natural gas pipeline. The first mile long 12-inch diameter pilot hole went under a train overpass, a hundred feet deep under the road under the overpass and hit the 2-inch target stake at the surface dead-on. The next pipeline hole went 1.5 miles under a river, it also hit the stake they were using as its proposed outfall.
That was ten years ago…[/QUOTE]
Drilling isn’t my specialty although I know a lot of people in the business. My brother-in-law was directional driller for 25 years. I agree if you are working in a favorable environment the tools to put you spot on are amazing. The problem with the environment they are in has big mass differences in its shales & sands. It is very easy for assemblies to slide, holes to collapse, lose circulation, Etc. DWH had to cut pipe & sidetrack on this well. I am certainly not wanting to be pessimistic, but in a scenario where 50/50 is a realistic number it would sure be better to have a back up rig making hole at the same time. Why would they pull DDII ? They are assuming DDIII will achieve exact target hit. Didn’t assuming something was going to go perfectly already cost these guys credibility? I will say again, there is no way DDII will hookup a riser with a stack to a flowing well, lest they go the way of DWH.
Nothing will blow material 60 feet through water. You might displace water for some distance but not misshaped projectiles through it. If we had an explosion that displaced the water the ROV would thrown with it and we would lose the shot. Consider what happens when a cameraman falls…
[QUOTE=company man 1;34130]Because the ROV is probably about 60 feet above the casing head where this is blowing & appears positioned opposite of the blow? The plume is very visible at times & sometimes clouds out the view of the camera.
Wouldn’t shallow casing failures or cement failures as you suggest be catastrophic here? I can’t understand how it could blow pieces like that and then stop. What force is driving the cement outward? It would be the pressure from the oil/mud right? Where there’s thunder there’s lightening. If we see cement, why aren’t we seeing oil/mud escaping around the well head?[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=company man 1;34136]Drilling isn’t my specialty although I know a lot of people in the business. My brother-in-law was directional driller for 25 years. I agree if you are working in a favorable environment the tools to put you spot on are amazing. The problem with the environment they are in has big mass differences in its shales & sands. It is very easy for assemblies to slide, holes to collapse, lose circulation, Etc. DWH had to cut pipe & sidetrack on this well. I am certainly not wanting to be pessimistic, but in a scenario where 50/50 is a realistic number it would sure be better to have a back up rig making hole at the same time. Why would they pull DDII ? They are assuming DDIII will achieve exact target hit. Didn’t assuming something was going to go perfectly already cost these guys credibility? I will say again, there is no way DDII will hookup a riser with a stack to a flowing well, lest they go the way of DWH.[/QUOTE]
Oh come on, everything is perfectly predictable when you are drilling! 
Anyone who still thinks BP is on the up & up needs to tune into Campbell Brown’s show tonight. CNN is certainly not my favorite network, but they have had by far the most coverage of one of the most significant events in American History. BTW, while I do not agree with him on much politically, James Carville is one of the few guys in this situation who I trust & agree with totally. His family has been in the oil business & he is being advised by people who definitely know what they are talking about.
[QUOTE=CPTdrillersails;34138]Oh come on, everything is perfectly predictable when you are drilling! ;-)[/QUOTE]
Spoken like a true engineer. LMAO.