How will drilling two relief wells stop the original leaking well?

[ckissick]

Originally Posted by Venetian

QUOTE: Then, this 36 inch tube needs to find its way down to another 36 inch tube, while being remotely drilled from 5000 feet above. It needs to curve to find this tiny tube; The difficulty of this is mind boggling! "

I think they can do it. I've worked with devices to measure landslide movements down holes several hundred feet deep. It measures changes in position with extreme precision. They can guide wells with equal precision. It's not a sure thing, but certainly doable.

[Pazuzu]

Relief wells have been drilled, but I don't know of one that has been drilled at 18K feet, in a mile of water, and cutting into a well that is flowing better than 50% of the production wells in the gulf.

This is an order of magnitude harder than any relief well they've ever done, which is why their drilling two of them...now it's only 5 times harder

They are going to screw themselves when they get that riser cut today, especially because it seems from their press release today that the "cap" won't get installed for a few days. They'll pump as much oil into the water in the next 50 hours as they've done total up to now...

However, if they happen to hit the relief well on the first try, they will probably go ahead and complete the second one (only a week behind). See, no one else can get a new well drilled right now, yet BP got TWO wells drilled, into a known flowing formation, with basically no paperwork or time spent. Yes, those relief wells can and will become the first verification wells for that region, something that they would have waited a year or more to get otherwise. BP ain't so stupid...

[red-beard]

Mike, you're definitely more "tuned in" on this situation than most of the rest of us. Are most of the formations at this depth, like this one? Lots of high pressure gas and oil?

The WSJ is reporting that BP had choices in the pipe and cement configuration, but chose the "most economical" for time to complete.

BP Revised Permits Before Blast .
By RUSSELL GOLD, BEN CASSELMAN And MAURICE TAMMAN

Just a week before the Deepwater Horizon exploded, BP PLC asked regulators to approve three successive changes to its oil well over 24 hours, according to federal records reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.

The unusual rapid-fire requests to modify permits reveal that BP was tweaking a crucial aspect of the well's design up until its final days.

One of the design decisions outlined in the revised permits, drilling experts say, may have left the well more vulnerable to the blowout that occurred April 20, killing 11 workers and leaving crude oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.

The Minerals Management Service approved all the changes quickly, in one instance within five minutes of submission.

New information about the well has become public as BP faces increasing pressure from government officials and Gulf Coast residents angry and frustrated over the protracted spill, now the worst in U.S. history.

With the failure of its "top kill" effort to stop the leak, BP is returning to its strategy of trying to corral the oil, sucking it up from the well a mile below the surface. BP now plans to take the risky step of cutting off a bent pipe into the well. Undersea robots will then try to attach a siphon device to the wellhead.

Both BP and the MMS have faced growing scrutiny from congressional investigators looking into the Deepwater Horizon disaster and the resulting oil spill. Last week, a Wall Street Journal investigation found that BP had made a series of choices that made the well more vulnerable to a blowout.

BP's flurry of revisions and re-revisions stands out as uncommon. Of the more than 2,200 wells that have been drilled in the Gulf since 2004, only 5% have had multiple permit revisions submitted to MMS within one calendar day, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of MMS records.

In only one other case, a 2005 well drilled in just 48 feet of water, has a company submitted three revisions within 24 hours, as happened on BP's well. BP's well was in nearly 5,000 feet of water, which has made dealing with the well far more complicated.

BP declined to comment on the permit changes. Transocean didn't respond to a request for comment.

MMS declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation into the causes of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

By April 14, when BP filed the first of three permits that would later be amended, the London-based oil company had already faced many problems with the well, including losing costly drilling fluid and fighting back natural gas that tried to force its way into the well. The problems had caused BP to use eight pieces of steel pipe to seal the well, rather than the planned six pieces. The permit filed on April 14 dealt with the eighth and final section, which hadn't yet been installed in the well.

BP had hoped to get a 9 7/8-inch pipe—big enough to handle a lot of oil and gas—into the reservoir. But for the final section, the largest pipe they could fit was a 7-inch pipe. The company had to decide whether to use a single piece of pipe that reached all the way from the sea floor down to the oil reservoir, or use two pipes, one inside the other.

.The two-pipe method was the safer option, according to many industry experts, because it would have provided an extra layer of protection against gas traveling up the outside of the well to the surface. Gene Beck, a longtime industry engineer and a professor at Texas A&M University, said the two-pipe method is "more or less the gold standard," especially for high-pressure wells such as the one BP was drilling.

But the one-pipe option was easier and faster, likely taking a week less time than the two-pipe method. BP was spending about $1 million per day to operate the Deepwater Horizon.

In an April report, a BP engineer concluded that the one-pipe option was the "best economic case" despite having "some risk" of leaving an open path for gas to travel up the outside of the well. The two-pipe option, the report said, would provide an extra barrier against gas but would only be used if "stability problems" or other issues arose with the well.

On April 14, at 8:34 p.m., BP informed the MMS that it planned to use the one-pipe method, using a single 7-inch-wide pipe for the whole length of the well. The MMS approved the permit at 8:13 the next morning, according to federal records.

At 9:54 a.m. on April 15 BP filed another permit informing the MMS of a correction. Rather than using a 7-inch-wide pipe the whole way, it planned to run a tapered pipe that was wider at the top than at the bottom. This was approved by the MMS seven minutes later.
Then, at 2:35 p.m., BP filed another revision. This one informed the MMS that it had "inadvertently" omitted mention of a section of pipe already in the well. Four and one-half minutes later, MMS approved this permit also.

Demonstrators turned out in New Orleans to express outrage at BP and the U.S. government over their handling of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Video courtesy of Reuters.
.
Last year, the MMS floated a proposal to require all companies to "document and analyze" all major changes. BP responded during a comment period that the proposed safety rules were unnecessary.

In addition to well-design tweaks, the company's day-to-day operational plan was also in flux, according to testimony from an investigative hearing held by the Coast Guard and MMS in Kenner, La., last week.

On Thursday, Jimmy Wayne Harrell, a Transocean employee who was the rig's offshore installation manager, said "the drilling program was constantly changing."

He testified that BP representatives overseeing the job had repeatedly altered plans in the days leading up to the accident, and he had had to argue to ensure certain tests were done.

BP senior drilling engineer Mark Hafle, in testimony on Friday at the same hearings, blamed the multiple well-design corrections on an inexperienced data entry employee who "made some typos" filling out the forms.

—Stephen Power contributed to this article.
Write to Russell Gold at russell.gold@wsj.com, Ben Casselman at ben.casselman@wsj.com and Maurice Tamman at maurice.tamman@wsj.com

[dlockhart]

Originally Posted by Soukus

I haven't even thought about the getting laid part...really?

And with a real girl too.

Thought you would like that

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by red-beard

Mike, you're definitely more "tuned in" on this situation than most of the rest of us. Are most of the formations at this depth, like this one? Lots of high pressure gas and oil?

VERY high pressure, mostly oil. 15K PSI and 500 degrees is expected in that depth. I have yet to see anything that makes me think that this well was misbehaving any more or less than any other deep water well (remember, the very first reports were a kick 10 times greater than ever seen before, that blew the rig apart). Now we know that it was a well basically like any other (Tiber, MadDog, ThunderHorse, even the deep wells in shallower water like BlackBeard), with the same well understood and anticipated difficulties. The only difference was this well is liberally covered in laziness and cost cutting compared to those other ones.


Interesting aside though...

They made a discovery announcement about a week before the blowout for this well. I was talking to one of my sources right afterward, and he was saying that everyone was surprised about that. Other companies have drilled that area before, and come up dry. It was assumed to be a dead region, at least in the depth people were looking for. BP hit something BIG, in an area that had been given up on. No one knows how, no one knows why they went there and spent the money, no one knows what seismic they had, but we all know that they hit a massive, well developed, very powerful well.

I wonder how much of this cost cutting and undercutting came from the fact that they expected to find little to no oil and gas, and were simply spending some money on an exploratory well. Companies do that all the time, both to change the asset books, to test technology, or to have 20K of hole ready in case a deeper study shows something. I half expect that BP was surprised when this well started flowing, and they tried to plug and abandon it as quickly as possible so they could make plans for a massive drill effort (buy up lease blocks, prep rigs, and go to town).

[red-beard]

That makes more sense than any other explantion I've heard. One of my neighbors works for a BP sub-contractor. He was pretty matter of fact: "Well, when a well kicks, it kicks, and there isn't much you can do...".

It seems with all of the drilling permit changes, the info trickling out of the survivors, and BPs known cost cutting and safety issues, the picture is beginning to become clear.

You know, I did read somewhere, probably a different WSJ report, that BP was hurrying to move on to another drill site. Hmmmmm. Maybe they DO know more than they are letting on.

[Pazuzu]

It had also gone long past it's due date (on the order of 80-90 days past, at a $million a day). That means it was now a far more expensive well, and was 3 months closer to hurricane season that it should have been.

There are literally dozens of reasons/excuses for them to have rushed (not good ones, trust me). BP can pick and choose which ones they want to publicize at any time. Unfortunately, they are still firmly planted in the driver's seat, and we're all along for the ride. Whatever they say in a press release, we can only sit and nod our head and say "hmmm, interesting". Whatever crazy idea they come up with for the well, we can only sit and watch. Oh...and we can only watch what they show us. People are pounding their chests over this, but BP still has it's hand firmly shoved up our rear, and they are still using us all as ventriloquist dummies.

[VINMAN]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

VERY high pressure, mostly oil. 15K PSI and 500 degrees is expected in that depth. .

15,000 psi???? holy crap!!

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by VINMAN

15,000 psi???? holy crap!!

15K PSI with reference too surface pressure. Once the oil gets to the wellhead, it's traveled 18K feet up and lost probably 10-12K PSI.

Still...imagine what's going to happen when they cut that riser, and open up a completely clear, 21 inch diameter hole to that 3K PSI, 300 degree oil/gas/rock mix.

Not only is it going to blow out of there like a firehose, it's going to sandblast anything above it (like the new cap and it's rubber seal, which I expect will last a few minutes). Not to mention the fact that the water directly above the well will now be full of semi-dissolved and agitated gas, which lowers it's buoyancy A LOT. Like, enough that the drillship floating right above it might not be able to stay afloat.

[78sc]

Not sure if any of you have seen this, but it's pretty interesting to watch some live video feeds of the underwater robotic operations:

[m21sniper]

Originally Posted by dlockhart

The engineer who solves this mess will be a hero for a moment and has a outside shot at finally getting laid

LOL! Now that's funny!

[Tidybuoy]

Originally Posted by 78sc

Not sure if any of you have seen this, but it's pretty interesting to watch some live video feeds of the underwater robotic operations:

Is the the same video feed of the actual leaking oil or have they changed it - I just checked it out and there's big equipment doing stuff.

The only thing I wish is that these videos were somehow put into perspective. Each time I have seen the leak, it looks like it's coming from a pipe laying on the ground and you really get no idea where the actual defective blowout preventor is. Also, it would be nice if it showed scale (i.e., it that blowout preventor 2 stories tall or 10).

Thanks for posting this link - it looks pretty interesting

[Tidybuoy]

One more comment...that's pretty giantic equipment. I wonder what it takes to keep it floating..

[red-beard]

Millions of $$

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by Tidybuoy

Is the the same video feed of the actual leaking oil or have they changed it - I just checked it out and there's big equipment doing stuff.

The only thing I wish is that these videos were somehow put into perspective. Each time I have seen the leak, it looks like it's coming from a pipe laying on the ground and you really get no idea where the actual defective blowout preventor is. Also, it would be nice if it showed scale (i.e., it that blowout preventor 2 stories tall or 10).

Thanks for posting this link - it looks pretty interesting

as of 5 pm, looks like they have a cutter clamped on

I hope all their resources are going to fixing the problem & not on explaining the videos in real time...

[Normy]

Well, in my opinion:

[I'm an airline pilot, not a chemical/petroleum engineer, or any sort of expert on oil rigs]

Boring a "relief well" sounds like fireing a gun to hit a bullet fired by another gun...while riding a horse. YEAH, it is possible...but is it really going to work?

=======

This is RIDICULOUS!

Hello?

HOW in the HELL can this sort of mess be possible? I'll tell you why- for the same reason that Ford Pinto's were a hazard in a rear- impact, the oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico are a PROBLEM waiting for a PLACE to OCCUR~

---Folks, when you DE-REGULATE...you wind up with these sorts of problems. Sorry---

-What we need to decide next is whether we want drilling in the Gulf of Mexico at all. If ONE well can do this much damage...do we really want 2200 or so other wells in this body of water?

Of course, the real damage hasn't been done; It is only a matter of time before the massive oil slick destroys the Florida keys. Oh well, there will always be a GREAT sunset on Mallory Square in Key West...

N!

[RWebb]

the oil is supposed to hit FL sometime tomorrow

as far as drilling in the Gulf at all is concerned, those are major major basins - and when you are an addict, you will do anything to get your fix

what we perhaps should do is to drill baby drill in middle East waters - then the FkUps can pollute their oceans, by the time we have sucked all the other areas dry we will still have oil in our own waters, but will have gotten all the experiments, R&D done in somebody else's back yard, so we could then drill here with more safety

of course you need a big army to do that...

the bottom line is that there is no way to drill your way out of the problems of having 6 billion humans using oil

[red-beard]

Drilling is being done where it is allowed to be done. Obama had closed off most of the rest of the Continental shelf, and almost all Western Federal land, not to mention Alaska.

It isn't a matter of where, but how. Obviously this could have been done better. It was in BP's best interests to not have a blow out, commercially and morally. I'm just not sure that BP is run morally. They have had too many accidents and they all seem to point to cutting corners, usually at the expense of safety, to save a few bucks.

The right thing to do, after this mess is fixed, is hit them where it hurts. Pull their permits to operate in the USA. I mean everything. Basically, force BP to liquidate their holdings and move to "somewhere else".

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

...

They are going to screw themselves when they get that riser cut today, especially because it seems from their press release today that the "cap" won't get installed for a few days. They'll pump as much oil into the water in the next 50 hours as they've done total up to now...

...

the riser cut doesn't look like it is real clean...

[cgarr]

Originally Posted by RWebb

as of 5 pm, looks like they have a cutter clamped on

I hope all their resources are going to fixing the problem & not on explaining the videos in real time...

Or spending their time in court...