HateCheese

So I've been reading that on 9/2/10 BP is replacing the BOP. Why?

My understanding was that a BOP is used control a well. Since they stopped the leak up top with cement, why would they need a new one?

It makes sense that they would want to pull up the old one and figure out what happened so that they can prevent this type of accident again. Or to just learn more about what happened. But why a new one....

There is probably a good reason, maybe someone on here knows.

Regardless of that, WHY WHY WHY are we not hearing about the relief well sealing this thing from the bottom. A month ago they were 15ft away. What has happened since? Friggin infuriating. Transparency my a$$. I'm still thinking in the back of my mind that they are trying to make sure they can produce from this well in the future.

Pinksnappertrapper

Lots of shit going on. and to TOP it off ANOTHER RIG BLEW UP TODAY..????????

Play'N Hooky

Three factors:

1) It's old news so the media is not actively following it and have moved on to trying to explain what happended to the 200 million gallons of oil that never materialized,

2) BP has no desire to discuss it any more than they have to, and

3) it is likely that BP has told the feds that it is plugged to their satisfaction (ie: as dead as fried chicken) and that if the feds want to plug it any better then they can just have at it. Since the feds have no resources for doing so, they are just going to let the issue quitely go away...

SLICK75

1.) They have not pumped cement yet that I know of, if it has then its below the BOP. The BOP they are pulling is the one that malfunctioned for whatever reason so its serving no purpose there whatsoever (Dont listen to the media they have no idea how a BOP works). MY OPINION: BEFORE the well blew out they had what is called a mechanical packer in the wellhead to plug the well before pumping cement on top of the packer. When the well blew out, the packer had to go somewhere, more than likely lodged in the BOP preventing the BOP from functioning. The BOP is designed to cut pipe up to 18" diameter, not the almost solid steel packer that is probably laying at an odd angle inside the BOP.
2.) The well is essentially dead right now. The weight of the drilling mud they were able to pump in after the temp cap was installed is doing what its supposed to. That mud weighs somewhere around 17- 20 lbs/gallon. Theres hundreds of gallons in there. Basically the mud IS the cap at this point, until they get a functioning BOP reinstalled.
3.) When the relief well enters the existing well bore it could cause a pressure spike which could possibly blow the kill mud out the top again if they dont have a functioning BOP on the blown out well, which would instantly slingshot the operation right back to the beginning. I dont think ANYONE wants to see that happen.
4.) You arent hearing the media talk about anything because the "catastrophic environmental disaster" never happened. Im not saying that its not bad, but its nowhere near the scale that the media and tree-huggers predicted. Now they all look like idiots and liars and they are trying to distance themselves from it.
5.) You have to remember, the Discoverer Enterprise (the drillship drilling the relief well) is drilling just a few hundred feet from the blown out well. They are experiencing EVERYTHING that the Horizon had experienced right up to the blowout. I know this, because we were within 30 miles of the Horizon and we were having many of the same issues. If they get into a rush, they could be looking at the same result. And as I said above, without having a functioning BOP in place on the blown out well head, they could blow it out again.

jim t

Is the BOP designed to cut the pipe at the 18" or so where they screw one pipe into the next pipe? I thought that might be the issue because there was not enough time to move the pipe to not target around the double diameter of the screw area.

Jim

SLICK75

I have only ever seen the "aftermath" of the shear rams on 5-1/2" Drill pipe and its nasty. No, they avoid cutting the tooljoint area (where DRILLpipe screws together) but I think it is possible but not 100% effective. Casing pipe is the only thing that would go up to 18" and yes they can cut the casing collar. The difference is, on drill pipe the tooljoint is a flared out thick area (as much as 3" thick walls with male and female threads combined) where the threads are cut. On casing pipe however, some has a collar similar to a galvanized pipe coupling while other types have the threads actually cut into the inner casing wall. In both cases the pipe is thin enough that the shear rams can handle it.

jim t

Good info... Thanks!

Can I assume the rig was well past "Drill pipe" and using all "casing pipe" by the time of the accident?

Jim

SLICK75

The only drill pipe that was in the hole was what they had been using for pressure tests and displacing the riser mud (5000' +/-). They were finished with the well. All the casing was set, and they had pumped the cement and removed the drilling mud from the BOP and riser pipe (the mud stays in the well from the wellhead down) and replaced it with seawater. Then they performed the pressure test. Thats when things went downhill. For whatever reason when they bled off the pressure from the test the cement plugs apparently failed and without the 5000' of drilling mud in the riser, the well came up and came up FAST. Mud and seawater was blown over 200' feet into the air in a matter of seconds. A natural gas cloud made it into the intakes of the main engines that power the rig. Natural gas and diesel engines DO NOT MIX. Thats where the initial explosion started and the rest is history.

jim t

So... were they not yet capturing oil from the well when the explosion happened? I assumed it was a well already in normal operations and was doing some routine tests when all hell broke loose.

I think most of the general public thinks the same.

Jim

SLICK75

No, it was strictly a drilling rig. A workover rig would have been moved in at a later date to prepare the well for production. I also heard several other inconsistencies in the early reports. Thats why I hate anything to do with the media. Rather than admitting they dont know what they are talking about, they use big scientific words to confuse the audience to make themselves look smart and keep the audience coming back for more. Then if its a good enough story to last a few weeks, they have time to learn a little bit more and cover up their earlier mistakes.