- My Forums
- Tiger Rant
- LSU Recruiting
- SEC Rant
- Saints Talk
- Pelicans Talk
- More Sports Board
- Winter Olympics
- Fantasy Sports
- Golf Board
- Soccer Board
- O-T Lounge
- Tech Board
- Home/Garden Board
- Outdoor Board
- Health/Fitness Board
- Movie/TV Board
- Book Board
- Music Board
- Political Talk
- Money Talk
- Fark Board
- Gaming Board
- Travel Board
- Food/Drink Board
- Ticket Exchange
- TD Help Board
Customize My Forums- View All Forums
- Show Left Links
- Topic Sort Options
- Trending Topics
- Recent Topics
- Active Topics
Started By
Message
Reason BP wouldn't fully plug the leak
Posted on 6/10/10 at 8:16 pm
Posted on 6/10/10 at 8:16 pm
the louisiana oil and gas association met today in lafayette.
Don Briggs was a speaker there.
He gave a very good speech about the effect of Moratorium and that the ripple effect will be far worse than anyone expects. (which we already do feel)
One question that was brought up to him by the attendees was "is BP intentionally siphoning the oil for them to profit and not lose money on the oil and as a result not plugging the pipe leaking".
he said something along the lines of "i don't think BP is concerned with profiting from the oil being siphoned, and im not an engineer, so i don't know the true effect of plugging the pipe"
at that point someone in the crowd stood up to give his opinion. he expressed that he is an engineer and that completely plugging the hole would be a bad idea because it could result in pipe underground failing and busting. therefore they would have a tougher leak to plug then what they have now.
don't know if this is Germans or not, but you can go to LINK to read what Mr.Briggs had to say. it was very informative. just sharing more information
direct link to article on his speech:
LINK
Don Briggs was a speaker there.
He gave a very good speech about the effect of Moratorium and that the ripple effect will be far worse than anyone expects. (which we already do feel)
One question that was brought up to him by the attendees was "is BP intentionally siphoning the oil for them to profit and not lose money on the oil and as a result not plugging the pipe leaking".
he said something along the lines of "i don't think BP is concerned with profiting from the oil being siphoned, and im not an engineer, so i don't know the true effect of plugging the pipe"
at that point someone in the crowd stood up to give his opinion. he expressed that he is an engineer and that completely plugging the hole would be a bad idea because it could result in pipe underground failing and busting. therefore they would have a tougher leak to plug then what they have now.
don't know if this is Germans or not, but you can go to LINK to read what Mr.Briggs had to say. it was very informative. just sharing more information
direct link to article on his speech:
LINK
This post was edited on 6/10/10 at 8:21 pm
1
Posted on 6/10/10 at 8:27 pm to donRANDOMnumbers
quote:
One question that was brought up to him by the attendees was "is BP intentionally siphoning the oil for them to profit and not lose money on the oil and as a result not plugging the pipe leaking".
Someone should have kicked this person in the balls. Yeah, BP wants to save a well to make a few million, meanwhile they might go bankrupt after allowing oil to wash up on the shores of four states. Do the math people. Use common sense. Just a little of it is all that is needed.
Posted on 6/10/10 at 8:28 pm to notiger1997
quote:
Someone should have kicked this person in the balls. Yeah, BP wants to save a well to make a few million, meanwhile they might go bankrupt after allowing oil to wash up on the shores of four states. Do the math people. Use common sense. Just a little of it is all that is needed.
i agree. however that wasn't the true point of why i posted it. the real question is what would be the result if they completely plugged the hole right now. would it result in an even worse scenario?
who knows. but its an interesting thought.
Posted on 6/10/10 at 8:29 pm to donRANDOMnumbers
I understood your point, but couldn't help making fun of that other question.
Posted on 6/10/10 at 8:51 pm to donRANDOMnumbers
The comment the engineer made may actually be correct. I am also an engineer, and from the wellbore diagram I saw a little while back, there are very few strings of casing tied back all the way to the surface. The rest are liners. The last string tied back is a 16" string, and bust rating on that is most likely no more than 7 or 8000 psi. If the well was fully plugged then it would exceed this pressure and either fracture the formation at the shoe or burst the 16". All in all the casing design is very suspect.
Posted on 6/10/10 at 8:59 pm to Drilltiger
quote:
The last string tied back is a 16" string, and bust rating on that is most likely no more than 7 or 8000 psi.
Wow, so if I'm reading this right, even if the BOP would have worked and closed then we still may have been in trouble? So the design of the well itself is in question?
Just trying to understand.
My opinion, I think BP wants to stop the leak by any reasonable means. They have already said they would donate any money made from the oil capture to the gulf states recovery. Additionally, I've heard of fines as much as $4,000 / bbl for the oil that has leaked into the gulf. So yes BP has got to want to stop the leak.
Posted on 6/10/10 at 9:28 pm to paulie
I really hope there is something missing from the diagram/documents I have seen, because the design doesn't add up. It doesn't make sense how it would have been approved by the MMS as it looks now. But yes, currently as it looks even if the BOP's closed originally it may have burst the pipe somewhere and still caused a mess. May not be as big of a mess as it is now, but still a mess.
Posted on 6/10/10 at 9:30 pm to Drilltiger
quote:
The comment the engineer made may actually be correct. I am also an engineer, and from the wellbore diagram I saw a little while back, there are very few strings of casing tied back all the way to the surface. The rest are liners. The last string tied back is a 16" string, and bust rating on that is most likely no more than 7 or 8000 psi. If the well was fully plugged then it would exceed this pressure and either fracture the formation at the shoe or burst the 16". All in all the casing design is very suspect.
interesting....I am in the pipeline industry myself and have wondered why they were reluctant to squeeze the riser off all along.....is it common practice in the oilfield to design wells that can't be shut in?.....
Posted on 6/10/10 at 10:02 pm to Spankum
Not exactly, usually it is designed where the formation just below the last full string of pipe will fracture before the casing burst. Which could cause an underground flow or breach to surface, but that is the only way you can design some wells. But here there were multiple liners set after the 16" that if tied back would have made formation fracture much less likely.
But I don't claim to be an expert at deepwater, there are many things taken into account when designing a well of this magnitude. Temperature, and trapped annular pressures were probably big reasons why liners were run and not full casing strings and why cement wasn't completely circulated on the outside of the liners.
But I don't claim to be an expert at deepwater, there are many things taken into account when designing a well of this magnitude. Temperature, and trapped annular pressures were probably big reasons why liners were run and not full casing strings and why cement wasn't completely circulated on the outside of the liners.
Posted on 6/10/10 at 10:14 pm to Drilltiger
Interesting....thanks for the insight... 
Posted on 6/10/10 at 11:21 pm to Spankum
The engineer is absolutely correct. I've said a few times on here that capping would result in a very big pipe bomb.
Posted on 6/11/10 at 1:21 am to redstick13
Top Kill might have worked because they would have forced mud down the well and then plugged it. The deeper the mud goes the higher the pressure there already. If they got the mud deep enough the danger would not really be there.
BP was told to stop the top kill effort because of a fear that the pressure to push mud that deep would have been too great. We will never know which would have been better... keep pumping mud or stop.
On the secondary topic. Anyone that think BP wants the well to flow should have voting rights revoked. Any idiot that think it was better for BP to allow it to flow how about make me the same deal. You give me a million dollars and I will give you a thousand dollars. That is about the deal that BP would get from the oil.
And oh wait. If they plug the well they get all of the oil???? And oh wait BP is donating all the income from the recovered oil to wildlife organizations.
People that think that BP could but doesn't shut off the well are freaking a disgrace to the human race.
BP was told to stop the top kill effort because of a fear that the pressure to push mud that deep would have been too great. We will never know which would have been better... keep pumping mud or stop.
On the secondary topic. Anyone that think BP wants the well to flow should have voting rights revoked. Any idiot that think it was better for BP to allow it to flow how about make me the same deal. You give me a million dollars and I will give you a thousand dollars. That is about the deal that BP would get from the oil.
And oh wait. If they plug the well they get all of the oil???? And oh wait BP is donating all the income from the recovered oil to wildlife organizations.
People that think that BP could but doesn't shut off the well are freaking a disgrace to the human race.
Posted on 6/11/10 at 6:33 am to notiger1997
quote:
Someone should have kicked this person in the balls. Yeah, BP wants to save a well to make a few million, meanwhile they might go bankrupt after allowing oil to wash up on the shores of four states. Do the math people. Use common sense. Just a little of it is all that is needed.
Stockholm Syndrome?
Here we have a resident of Louisiana defending the entity that is kicking Louisiana "in the balls" at this very moment. Or rather, defecating all over one of Louisiana's most valuable assets, and by extension the citizens of Louisiana as well.
*************************
Good post Drilltiger. It's posts like yours which make this forum worth visiting. A little fact and expertise sheds much light on this subject; about which most Americans know very little.
Posted on 6/11/10 at 7:39 am to WNCTiger
quote:
Stockholm Syndrome?
What in the holy hell are you trying to say? English please.
I don't think I was defending BP at all. Just pointing out the stupidity of anyone thinking they could have plugged the well and didn't because they were looking to save the well.
Posted on 6/11/10 at 9:06 am to notiger1997
I hear what you all are saying about the BOP situation, but the deal is usually there is mud in well and if the BOP would have shut correctly, it would have some fluid below it going into the well helping hold all that pressure down, even if not much, it would help.
The stupidity practiced here buy displacing the mud with sea water, before the well was ready, is why there ended up being a situation where the well setup probably wouldn't hold all the direct pressure from underground if the BOP had actually worked.
The stupidity practiced here buy displacing the mud with sea water, before the well was ready, is why there ended up being a situation where the well setup probably wouldn't hold all the direct pressure from underground if the BOP had actually worked.
Posted on 6/11/10 at 10:49 am to the LSUSaint
i thought i would edit my original post.
the question asked by the person in the crowd was "is BP going to continue siphoning the oil, or are they trying to plug the leak".
his answer of course was that he was not an engineer and did not know the effect of plugging the leak. in which the guy stood up and gave his two cents. which lead to this thread and where we are now.
there was never any reference to BP trying to profit from the collected oil. therefore that guy was not that big of an idiot, i just thought out what he had said wrong while typing.
the question asked by the person in the crowd was "is BP going to continue siphoning the oil, or are they trying to plug the leak".
his answer of course was that he was not an engineer and did not know the effect of plugging the leak. in which the guy stood up and gave his two cents. which lead to this thread and where we are now.
there was never any reference to BP trying to profit from the collected oil. therefore that guy was not that big of an idiot, i just thought out what he had said wrong while typing.
This post was edited on 6/11/10 at 10:50 am
Posted on 6/11/10 at 11:22 am to redstick13
quote:
I've said a few times on here that capping would result in a very big pipe bomb.
Redstick, I remeber you saying that in an earlier post. A couple of questions:
If the wellhead, casing, etc cant handle the pressure that this well can produce how do they temporarily abandon them?? The wellhead would see this same pressure, no?
If the wellhead cant withstand this pressure how do they produce oil throught it?
I suppose my basic question is how do they normally controll pressure, I assume at some point you have to take the mud out of the hole.
Oh yea another question. How do they remove the mud out of the hole? Do they have a downhole pump?
Posted on 6/11/10 at 6:42 pm to SCTiger
The 7" tapered string was the production string. It is designed to withstand the reservoir pressure, the well head is also designed for the same pressure. All other larger strings are designed to allow the well to be drilled deeper and deeper.
Cement is used to seal off the backside so there is no pressure on in the well until they are ready for it. Completing the well would consist of shooting holes in the pipe and cement and into the formation and begin flowing to surface.
Mud was being displaced by use of drill pipe in the hole. DP is ran to specified depth and then displaced with water.
Cement is used to seal off the backside so there is no pressure on in the well until they are ready for it. Completing the well would consist of shooting holes in the pipe and cement and into the formation and begin flowing to surface.
Mud was being displaced by use of drill pipe in the hole. DP is ran to specified depth and then displaced with water.
Posted on 6/11/10 at 6:45 pm to Drilltiger
quote:
The comment the engineer made may actually be correct.
don't quit your day job for economics and politics then
Posted on 6/11/10 at 7:28 pm to notiger1997
quote:
Someone should have kicked this person in the balls.
+1 million.
Obviously BP (and their subs) made mistakes but that doesn't mean anyone is being flagrantly dishonest.
Page 1 of 1
Popular
Back to top
Follow TigerDroppings for LSU Football News