Comments on: Is the BP Oil Well Gonna Blow?

By: itzac

itzac — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 20:11:17 +0000

It makes me nervous that BP is still in charge of the site. I can’t help but worry they will sit there watching the pressure drop and hoping it will stop dropping soon.

By: Kris Rhodes

Kris Rhodes — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:16:39 +0000

The other thing to note is that the relief wells are being drilled to a level far below the surface. Since they’re so deep, the odds are that any leakage will be above the, which means that they still will work. Additionally, any leakage below them is unlikely to get to the surface – too much dirt in the way.

And lastly, the engineers thought that 8000psi would be good, while 6000psi would indicate leakage. The well has been sitting at 6700psi- which is sort of ambiguous. There might be leakage, or their calculations might have been off. Seems they should probably start working on pumping some to the surface again to reduce pressure.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:50:25 +0000

Omega, thanks for the correction which, I believe, is correct.

By: Bohica

Bohica — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:25:25 +0000

The lower pressure spells trouble. They were expecting 8000 PSI at the well head, but they’re not getting it. Since the well head is not getting full pressure, then the well is venting somewhere else.

What happens when the induced cavity leaks or ruptures? The well head pressure will drop further as the stored oil escapes.

The worry is that the well is broken far below the well head.

By: Omega Centauri

Omega Centauri — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:12:59 +0000

No Greg a relief well is not designed to draw off the pressure/fluids, rather it is a connection through which heavy mud can be injected to stop the well at depth. Of course there is still cause to be concerned in the meantime, can the upper reaches of the well and surrounding sediments take the pressure that has built up because of the cap?

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:26:33 +0000

Not really. A relief well is a controlled outlet that may or may not compete successfully with a natural opening.

Yes, my mistake, the pressure is on the low end of what it should be. Which is a concern, but mainly is uncertainty.

It may not be irrelevant, and indeed may impinge on the “this is not a bad scenario” hypothesis, that there is evidence already of seepage.

http://tinyurl.com/2dpddq6

By: NoAstronomer

NoAstronomer — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:14:07 +0000

Greg, that BBC article does not say anything about ‘pressure reductions’, it says that the pressure is not as high as expected. Which is not the same thing.

Also, once *successfully* completed, the relief wells will eliminate any leaks, random, uncontrolled or otherwise (they’re going to use the relief wells to plug the whole shaft). So I don’t see why that’s not a good scenario.

By: Virgil Samms

Virgil Samms — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:09:43 +0000

No biggee. Really. The possible leakage is happening with the valves on the new cap closed. If they open the valves it should reduce the pressure and thereby reduce the leakage. They should hook a pipe up to the new cap and let oil flow to surface ships.

By: Sharon Astyk

Sharon Astyk — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:54:00 +0000

What Dewey said. You can vote against drill baby drill politicians – if there are any, which there often aren’t. But until we actually get the heck off our oil dependency, even the quiet ones who don’t mention it will be defacto “drill baby drill” – because of the enormous and profound bind our energy dependence places us in.

Sharon

By: ranggaw0636

ranggaw0636 — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:23:11 +0000

How this accident happen anyway? The media in my country don’t give a damn about this disaster