Cool stuff, they are trying the cap right now - live feeds...

[Geronimo '74]

Dunno, still a lotta stuff coming out....

Is that oil or 'mud'?

[911Freak]

Good god I had no idea what this looked like.

Thanks for the link Wayne.

On camera Skandi ROV1 they are spraying a white milky material into the oil plum, is this oil dispersant material and if so how does it work?

Absolutely fascinating, I can't stop watching :/

[porsche4life]

In diving we figure every ten meters of water equals 1atm...

Or for you psi guys.... (DepthX15)/33

Or ~2,300psi just from the water weight...

[Heel n Toe]

Originally Posted by 911Freak

On camera Skandi ROV1 they are spraying a white milky material into the oil plum, is this oil dispersant material and if so how does it work?

It probably is... you can see it on Skandi ROV2 also... and look at the last line of superimposed text... it says...

Herc 6: Dispersant Ops

[JJ 911SC]

Originally Posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts

... Ever try to install a nozzle on the end of a garden hose because you're too lazy to walk across the lawn and turn it off (I admit, I've been). It's never pretty...
-Wayne

... I wash Das Babe. A bit less messy if you open the nozzle before hooking it up:

As for the addiction level, not as much as your site... Thank God they don't monitor the computers at work. I would be out of work and would have no money to spend at PP.

Yes, my next order is the Super Brake Kit nimus the stuff I got last year. You can thank Susan for letting me getting her () a scissor lift:

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts

Can they just bulldoze the entire BOP stack and then dump concrete on it? It's been a month and a half and they have nothing to show for their efforts. When I was working at Hughes Space and Comm, when we had a severe problem like this, we had multiple teams working on multiple solutions that could be tried one right after the other. Looks like these guys are like "hmm, let's try this, and if it doesn't work, we'll go back to the drawing board and try to come up with something else."

Bottomline, it certainly doesn't look like this cap is working. Ever try to install a nozzle on the end of a garden hose because you're too lazy to walk across the lawn and turn it off (I admit, I've been). It's never pretty. This seems to be having the same effect. Why is the pipe coming out of the cap so small? Is the cap full of seawater? I guess it has to be to equalize the pressure. Are they pumping out the seawater now and hoping the oil will flow upwards into the vacuum?

The problem is the oil in the pipe is about 5000 psi, and the hydrostatic pressure is only ~2300 psi. Bulldozing the pipe and dropping concrete on it is not going to stop the flow.

Now, if they get a "decent" seal, where only about 10% is leaking, they could try pumping in drilling fluid again, and stop the oil, and then eventually start pumping in concrete and plug the bore.

As far as activating the BOP, I've wondered the same thing. Why isn't there a simple manual shut off in the BOP? You could use a gate valve to come in from the side. I also wonder why they don't try to hook up fresh hydraulics to the BOP and see if they could make it work. Maybe they know something we don't know, which is that this BOP would never work properly...

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by red-beard

Maybe they know something we don't know, which is that this BOP would never work properly...

With BP running the show I wonder sometimes if they do know more than us. I sure hope they are staying at a Holiday Inn.

[stealthn]

Funny I heard they were bringing in James Cameron because he knew about....water.... Geez you'd thnk it would have been Kevin Costner from waterworld.....

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by stealthn

Funny I heard they were bringing in James Cameron because he knew about....water.... Geez you'd thnk it would have been Kevin Costner from waterworld.....

They already did...about 2 weeks ago

[Pazuzu]

1) The BOP is dead right now. Even if all of the valves worked properly and could close, the flow of oil (which brings rocks and gravel with it) has sandblasted all of the rubber and seals, nothing would seal now.
2) It's funny to talk about James Cameron, but the fact is that him and his team have invented new ways to use ROVs for imaging, and BP felt that his creative work with them would help a lot. It's a completely serious proposition.
3) Yes ,that's the dispersant, I don't know what it is exactly (whether it's a surfactant, or some kind of emulsifier or what).
4) Usually when you poke a hole in the ocean floor, oil does NOT come up. You have to create fractures and flow route at the bottom of the well, and often inject gas or water to press the oil out. The fact that this one is not just flowing, but flowing as hard as some of the actual production wells out there means that they have a MASSIVE oil formation there, which will make a great production well. Soon. Next year. Probably under someone else's control...

[gduke2010]

It appears they are using the drill ship the Deepwater Enterprise a deepwater drillship from the Transocean fleet to lower the cap to the lower marine package, another $375M deepwater drillship that RIG acquired through the Transocean purchase of R&B Falcon.

Too bad BP was the operator. If another company was the operator, this would've never happened. BP's safety record 276 OSHA violations compared to XOM 1 violation for the same time period. They should be banned from drilling off. the US coast not banning all drilling for all companies.

I believe the gov. could've brought in another company like XOM or a group of major oil companies to contain the leak at BP's expense. For example, another company would be more open to estimates on amounts of oil leaking and wouldn't do a shotty job of fixing the leak. We don't know if BP is using the best solitions. The gov. is solely relying on them though.

[widebody911]

"colorful" article on oil containment booms Daily Kos: State of the Nation

[911Freak]

According to a BP spokesperson

UPDATE 2-BP's cap funneling oil to the surface-Coast Guard | Reuters

"BP's strategy is now to trap most of the oil at the well and funnel it to a tanker on the surface until the company finishes drilling two relief wells to plug the leak. Those wells are expected to be finished by mid-August."

BP will start to close the vents on the bottom side of the cap as early as today or within the next 24-48 hrs, this will then direct 90% of the flow up to a container ship for collection. The other 10% they still haven't got a complete handle on. (why would 90% and not all 100% of the flow be contained and directed to the surface via the same pipe?)

A rubber seal on the bottom of the cap is intended to capture most of the oil, but some is still expected to escape...

You can see the bellowing vents here Enterprise – ROV 2: The Cap seems to be floating atop the pipe, last night this was not the case as the sap was firmly in place. New development? Or was a ROV simply holding it down in place? I hope this isn't an indication of things to come...
Live feeds from Enterprise – ROV 2

The pipe that sits atop the cap directing flow top side was shown on Enterprise ROV 1 but ROV 1 now top side for maintenance? :
Live feeds from Enterprise – ROV 1

Not sure if they are offline for lunch, strategy etc

As mentioned by Wayne and others it is baffling that they don't seem to have several alternate plans in place...

Fingers crossed they get this tapped and flowing topside today!

[jyl]

Very difficult situation for the govt.

This is an extremely technical situation, the govt doesn't have and can't have the resources or expertise to cap a deepwater oil well. It has to rely on the oil industry to fix the mess it created.

Who in the industry do you rely on? XOM? Would XOM be willing to touch this mess and become potentially liable (legal and PR) if they can't cap the well or even make things worse? If I were XOM, I would refuse to get involved, what's in it for me?

I think govt has no choice but to use BP in the Gulf, much as it used XOM in Valdez.

Originally Posted by gduke2010

It appears they are using the drill ship the Deepwater Enterprise a deepwater drillship from the Transocean fleet to lower the cap to the lower marine package, another $375M deepwater drillship that RIG acquired through the Transocean purchase of R&B Falcon.

Too bad BP was the operator. If another company was the operator, this would've never happened. BP's safety record 276 OSHA violations compared to XOM 1 violation for the same time period. They should be banned from drilling off. the US coast not banning all drilling for all companies.

I believe the gov. could've brought in another company like XOM or a group of major oil companies to contain the leak at BP's expense. For example, another company would be more open to estimates on amounts of oil leaking and wouldn't do a shotty job of fixing the leak. We don't know if BP is using the best solitions. The gov. is solely relying on them though.

[DanielDudley]

The cap has four vents, which are currently open. They will be shutting them slowly over the next 24 hours or so. Right now they are getting less than 10% of the output. Not sure how much they hope to eventually capture.

[RWebb]

they did initially try to close off the BOP - there were pics of an ROV waving a big open end wrench around on the BOP

what you see right now is deliberate venting of oil out of the top of the cap -- they need to be very cautious to not let things freeze up, hence the venting

they do indeed have multiple teams working on solutions - there is an op ctr. in Houston with about 50 engineers in it; controller on a dozen or more ships above the leak & consultants & teams scattered around the US -- see the PARFers thread castigating BP for talking to James Cameron & his relative? who is a scientist IIRC specializing in deep sea diving operations. So, they have cast a broad net for ideas.

[RWebb]

the dispersant may be Corex

I am told they are using a petro. based dispersant that is lower in toxicity than what was used on the Exxon valdez, BUT is still sufficiently toxic that the British will not allow its use in their own waters. I alos heard there is a shortage of the 'best' dispersants.

this is a lot like doing surgery during the Civil War - looks infected? well chop off his arm or leg - we just don't really know what is worse - dispersant + affected oil, or raw crude

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

... they have a MASSIVE oil formation there...

This brings up a critical issue.

What if they cannot drill the relief wells accurately?

In that case, there will be a MASSIVE leak for a long time. They can continue to drill intercept after intercept every 3 months...

But, the worst possible case here is very bad indeed. You need to think about whether the Sargasso Sea will be polluted and how much of the food resources of not only the Gulf of Mexico but the Atlantic Ocean will be polluted.

[RWebb]

one other thing re BP's violation record - yes, it does look pretty bad

but you have to adjust all the records of safety, health & env'l violations for where they occurred

Europe has a MUCH better record than the US - so if an average co. primarily does ops in the US, you might expect them to have a worse record; no idea re BP, you'd think they do a bunch of stuff in Europe, certainly they are in the North Sea

[Superman]

Originally Posted by RWebb

Europe has a MUCH better record than the US -

Safety is more important there. Here, profits are more important.