XON has 1 safety violation to BP's 250+. BP is a European company. And your conclusion is that europe values safety more?

Astounding!

Fixed that :p

The North sea does have far stricter rules. What we can do in the Gulf (not even the "sneaking around" part) often is completely forbidden out there. They take their safety and the safety of the industry very seriously...we would too if every American was as financially invested in oil as the average Norwegian is.
Also, the north sea is physically a tougher place to drill. The Gulf is like a relaxing vacation compared to it. Higher safety comes naturally when the very environment you're in is lethal.

Randy, appearently you don't read ANYTHING that is typed here. They don't guess where to drill, the use magnetometers and directional drilling equipment. This kind of equipment has been used for 50+ years. They won't miss. They are drilling 2 holes in case one has a problem, so they don't have to start over from the beginning.

A google search will answer all of your questions. Type in "relief well".

Mike: we need to set up another Houston beer run, with our with Rick Lee...

I am well aware of how accurate they can drill intercepts on dry land, james. And I know they are doing 2 wells - the govt. ordered them to drill 2 wells. BUT 2 may not be enuff.

They are in a different environment now. Got it??

Yeh - they won't miss. And the BOP always Works!

Not from what and the way you type...

I am down. We need to get bivenator as well.

Tomorrow?

Too friggin bad they already cut off the riser pipe. I think they could have built or split a BOP with a shear ram and clamped over the riser pipe. Activate once clamped, it should be shut off. The shear ram basically just cuts through the riser pipe and seals the whole damn thing shut. Not a permanent fix, but until they get the relief well completed I think it would have worked. The shear ram should have been activated on the BOP when they took the kick, and the blind and annular rams failed. Shear ram is usually the nuclear option as it generally means you have sheared the drill pipe off in the hole and it is a bit** to fish out. This should have happened when the thing blew out, but some idiot failed make sure the batteries in the dead man switch were any good.

I wonder if they could remove the cage from the stack and try this right at the sea bed surface. Sounds easy, but at 5000 feet I know it's a game changer.

I wonder why they didn't try to unbolt the pipe. That would have given them a clean flange to bolt a valve on. I guess they still can.

On land based wells they would just remove the bolts and slip on a fresh BOP stack, of course I guess the ROVs at 5000' are not as nimble as roustabouts on a surface well.

Those aren't threaded flanges. If they used the diamond saw to cut the bolts, on the pipe side of the pipe flange, they would have a perfect flange on top of the BOP. Drop on a valve, in the open position, so the oil flows through while positioning it. Now install bolts and use a hytorq to tighten them. Then use the rover to close the valve. Then, install a T with 2 more valves. now hook up a new pipe to the top of the top T-valve. Open the side valve on the T and run drilling mud down the pipe until it flow out. Close side valve. Open 1st valve and let drilling mud into main pipe, and then eventually run concrete down the line.

As a controls engineer, this is why we design in a 'fail-safe' mode. The batteries/supply should have held the BOP open. If power is lost, the valve should close automatically. Just like on any automated machine. The stop switch is wired normally closed. If a wire on the stop circuit comes loose, the machine will stop automatically.

We were talking about multiple teams and solutions today. When Apollo 13 "had a problem", teams of engineers, etc. were able to solve multiple problems while the craft was thousands of miles in outer space and bring the guys back. Those engineers back then would make BPs guys look like idiots now.

And watching the ROVs is like watching a train wreck. You just can't turn away.

That makes better sense. BPs deadman switch required a guy to activate I think.

I have read in a petroleum professional forum that PSI at the wellhead has been reported at >30,000 psi and that we have no subsea BOPs rated for more than 20,000. Can anyone confirm this? Seems like we could get a really big chunk of Ti or some alloy and mill something up PDQ. At current daily damage rates I would think money is not an object.

So the latest I have read is that the cap is in place and capturing about 10% of the oil flow, which BP hopes to raise to 90% as they close the vents but we'll see. Any updates?