Breaking news: It seems as though the cap placed on BP’s deep sea oil well may be leaking, and there is seeping gas and/or oil from nearby indicating that the oil is leaking from the bore hole into surrounding sediments.
A White House spokesman says BP’s ruptured oil well is leaking at the top, along with seepage about two miles away.
Robert Gibbs also says officials are monitoring bubbles that can be seen on an underwater camera.
Leaks could mean the cap on the well has to be opened to prevent oil and gas from escaping elsewhere.
The mechanical cap on the well stopped the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday.
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It seems unlikely that this would happen, but I have not been able to find anywhere what the actual casing program was on this well. If anyone can point me in the right direction, I would appreciate it, and could probably better estimate what is going on.
The latest report from AP has Thad Allen saying that the seepage “about two miles away is not likely related to the ruptured well.”
I suppose in a region with lots of underground oil and gas we should expect a certain amount of it to be seeping out of the earth on its own.
The bubbles seem small until you realize that’s the size they are under the pressure of a ton or so per square inch.
Rose: it’s mostly oil bubbles.
Greg: the leak is between the BOP and cap, not from the sediment
Also, the low pressure you mentioned earlier is quite possibly due to the formation of hydrates in the bore acting as a partial plug or due to the fact that millions of barrels of worth of pressure have been emptied into the Gulf…
Greg: the leak is between the BOP and cap, not from the sediment
The seep, not the leak, is from the sediment, and it is two miles away. But possibly unrelated to the BP well.
I enjoy the alliteration you guy are providing here. 😉
If the seep *is* from the bore (as originally stated) then that would imply a crappy cement job at the bottom of the well. I doubt such a problem would be manifest at 2 miles though; the stuff usually runs right up along the outside of the casing and pops up nearby, not a few miles away.
Oil and gas certainly seep onshore – Texas had these placers all over the place. The same happens under the sea as well; a significant portion of contemporary exploration involves identifying seeps at the surface (both onshore and offshore).
I have models of the blowout preventers like the one that failed for BP if anybody is looking for them. Many have purchased them for educational use etc. http://www.jhmco.us