Well... OK. wrong topic, I guess...
:?

but hey, lookie there! we get 600% more electricity from Hydro then we do from petroleum! How green is that!

 

this thread has nothing to do with rough sex!

 

It looks like The Gulf is pretty fucked.

*not_secure_link*news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8649862.stm

 

*not_secure_link*blogs.forbes.com/energysource/2010/04/30/bps-deepwater-disaster-what-happened-

*not_secure_link*images.forbes.com/media/blogs/new/energy-source_head.gif

BP's Deepwater Disaster: What Happened And Why?

April 30, 2010 - 2:37 pm
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Christopher HelmanBio | Email
Christopher Helman is an Associate Editor at Forbes, based in Houston


The speculation continues about what happened on the Deepwater Horizon and why. Facts are few, but more are emerging. So let's sum up what we think we know based on our own interviews, reports, deducations, and even the comment sections on countless internet sites.
First of all, it's likely that BP knows precisely what occurred. According to this 2002 article in Offshore, the Deepwater Horizon was set to be outfitted with a system called E-drill, which continuously beams data from rig operations to a monitoring center in Houston. This data is certainly logged. Until BP and Transocean show what they know, we're left with a lot of speculation.
We know with some certainty that workers were in the final stages of setting the final sections of pipe (production liner) in the hole and cementing it in place. The plan was to set cement plugs in the well, temporarily abandon it, and move the Deepwater Horizon off to a new drilling site within a couple days.
Instead, it appears that a gas bubble got into the well bore, causing what's called a "kick" as it traveled up the riser. Even a relatively small amount of gas a can cause big problems because a gas bubble will expand massively as it moves from high pressure at the seafloor to lower pressure at the surface. The friction caused by the gas bubble pushing up the pipe and displacing the drilling mud used to control the pressure could have created a static charge that ignited the gas into a fireball.
Blowout preventers (BOPs) are designed to deal with bubbles. Different control valves and rams can close in the well to various degrees (i.e. think of the difference between a sphincter and a guillotine). Why wasn't the BOP engaged at the time of the "kick." Perhaps there wasn't enough time to act. Even then, the big mystery is why the BOP still can't be activated now by the robotic submarines (ROVs) sent to the scene.
Some scenarios. Assume the workers did try to engage the BOP, but it didn't work. Why? One analyst I spoke with suggested that it could be that the kick pushed newly poured cement out of the casing, gumming up the controls. I ran that idea by a subsea engineer who has been responsible for BOPs in deepwater drilling offshore Brazil, and he felt it could be within the realm of possibility.
Another possibility--they tried to engage the BOP's shear ram (which is supposed to slice through the riser and seal off the hole) but there was something too big to shear. That could have been a solid steel joint between two sections of drill pipe. These joints come along about one foot in every 30 feet of pipe, so it would have been very unlucky for such a joint to be sitting right where the shear ram would try to cut--but possible.
Video shot by the robotic submarines (a.k.a. remote operated vehicles or ROVs) seems to indicate that oil is leaking from three spots in a pipe that is laying on the seafloor. The pipe would have to be a portion of the riser, which would have to still be attached to the BOP, but crimped and bent over. An uncuttable piece of joint lodged in the shear ram would perhaps explain why the ROVs haven't been able to subsequently engage the ram.
Something else to consider: it's been said that the workers were in the final stages of casing and cementing the hole and that within a couple days the Deepwater Horizon was to leave that spot to go drill a new prospect. My deepwater engineer source explains that the closer a rig gets to the end of a job like this, the more pressure there would be (from supervisors, etc) to not take a drastic step like engaging the BOP's shear ram. If they had suddenly disconnected the rig from the well at that point in the cementing process, "they might have lost the whole thing." On a well that cost BP and its partners $100 million to drill, none of the nine ill-fated Transocean and two Smith International employees on the rig floor would want to make that call.
Especially if they couldn't even imagine the scope of the disaster that unfolded. It's been 40 years since a blowout of this magnitude occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. None of those 11 workers who died on the rig floor could have imagined that this would happen to them. "We train people to cope with the unusual, but they very seldom see it," says the subsea engineer. "The equipment is designed to cope, but it very seldom needs to."


PS. Stumbler, Redeyed and Love chocolate......It's worth actually clicking on the link to read comments from readers at the end of the piece.

Here's an example:


lust another oil man
Reading through this article it is not the last operation you should study it the previous 3 or operation look for the last bop tests TO should perform these every 14 21 days these will reflect the state of the BOP. There would be an a emergency drill OR DRILLS performed or simulated to see if the automatic systems on the BOP were fully functioning and up to specification, and to were working with recommended manufactures specifications.
Were the crews fully capable of performing their tasks and understanding the assigned jobs. There is a severe shortage of experienced deep water drill crews world wide and some guys have climbed the tree very very quickly.
But getting back to the article there would have been a very comprehensive BP well program at the beginning of the operation the would have been DWOPS carried out prior to well start up.
There certainly would have daily instructions handed to the T.O. OIM/RIG SUPERINTENDANT then passed on to the drill crews.
The third party service engineers would also be involved with the daily operation and also reporting back on a daily basis to the own people in town (if they had any real concerns you can bet the people in town would know about it)
there will be speculation going on about this until the court cases and you can bet there will be court cases here.
There would have been a steady stream of information flow to and from the rig to town with all the automatic systems around theses days WITTS SAP HAWKS these system are never pulled until the rig is on the move to the next location so information will be available now if just a case who will release and when.
If litigation is involved I found in the past the truth Buried.
I will end this with a quote from a former CEO of a prominent drilling contractor at a company barbeque
Never let safety stand in the way of a dollar bill.

 

I really try not to get into the politcal side..

But I figured a few of you would get a kick out of Mr.Limbaugh...

 

Ahhhh man! I came on here this morning for the sole purpose of posting Rush's comments on this thread! You beat me to it! LOL

 

My apologies sir! lol

 

I actually feel quite vindicated by this article but we're still missing some crucial information. For one thing what exactly was the rig crew doing. If they had the casing or drill pipe open the well would have blown out both around the BOPs and also the inside of the pipe right in their faces on the rig floor and that would result in the well leaking from at least two places.

There is no excuse for BOP's to fail. That is just standard oilfield procedure and something not taken lightly since that's what keeps you from getting killed in a blowout and fire. If they didn't have accumulator pressure, or had the wrong sized pipe-rams in the BOP's there is no excuse for that.

Now as far as shear rams. If they've got them and haven't used them it simply means British Petroleum is willing to create all this environmental damage because they think it will be cheaper for them than possibly losing their well.

And what they are talking about here: "An uncuttable piece of joint lodged in the shear ram would perhaps explain why the ROVs haven't been able to subsequently engage the ram."

What they are talking about there is what we call a "tool joint." Picture a pipe that is five inches in diameter, and approximately 30 feet long. But the sections of pipe have to screw together so they have a threaded "box end" (or female) and a threaded "pin end" (male end) which are more like eight inches in diameter.

If just by bad luck when the pipe stopped in the BOP's there was a tool joint in the pipe rams or shear rams it would be too big to close around or cut off.

But here's where they're bullshitting. If they've got a tool joint in their shear rams all they have to do is open them and the pipe will fall, and then they can close them again, cut off the drill pipe, and stop the flow of oil and gas.

 

stumbler....this is off topic in a way from this thread but I can not find the one on the gas drilling...because of that one I have been asking questions of my gas guys and doing research on the water fracking problem...

I found this company....ECOSPHERE TECHNOLOGIES INC

They say they can solve some of the problems we are having here in the Barnett Shale Ft Worth....

*( It offers its patented Ecosphere Ozonix technology to assist gas and oil companies in treating water used to fracture natural gas wells; in eliminating the use of chemicals to treat bacteria and reduce scaling in the fracturing process; in eliminating the need to dispose of contaminated water, which flows back after fracturing wells)*

*not_secure_link*investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?ticker=ESPH:US

You seem to know this field what do you think?

When the chart looks right I am planning on buying a chunk of the stock.

Thanks...

 

I understand they're trying to put a gigantic cement condom over the place the oil is gushing from. I don't think this will prove to be a reliable method of oil spill control....

 

If you're going to buy stock in it buy now and be ready to bail at the first sign of trouble. I'm betting that eco-friendly chemicals and treatment might be a good idea for awhile, but only until they figure out that's not the real problem. No matter what you pump down, after the formations are fractured, anywhere there's cracks you're going to get formation water that comes up with the gas.

Formation water: Picture salt water that's trapped with billions of decaying sea creatures left to cook under immense pressure for 100 million years. Not the kind of stuff you want to be drinking or spraying on your crops.

I cannot believe how everyone involved is willing to allow British Petroleum to lead them around by the nose on this.

There's still no clear explanation of what happened. There's a possibility BP had shear rams on their BOP's and didn't use them. No one seems to know what they are using to "disburse" the oil with. And I've heard British Petroleum is protected by a $75 million cap on damages, but can't seem to confirm that.

But in the meantime, what's estimated to be 200,000 gallons a day will just keep flowing for the next three months or so. That's a lot of oil to suck up and there's no way they're going to get it all. In fact this looks like make work just to act like they're doing something.

 

Thanks for the reply...I am always ready to bail a stock going south...

But damn there has to be something we can do for the gas deal...we got 110 years of energy in gas in this country and it is going to take at least 25 years to get to wind - solar full time and I don't like nuclear at all...

this foreign oil is breaking us..

 

There is no way I would discourage the exploration and production of natural gas. But at the same time I'm telling you we cannot trust the oil and gas companies to look out for our real interests.

Let me put it this way. When we look at the TRILLIONS in debt we're facing in this nation where do you get that kind of money? Easy. We spend $25 billion a year on Persian Gulf oil alone. With liquid natural gas and ethanol from bio fuels we can convert that into spending more than $25 Billion a year right here. And benefit from all the jobs and economic growth that entails.

In fact we can supply 90% of our petroleum needs with biomass production of hemp alone. That has been known since 1905.

But what I'm saying is we cannot trust the oil and gas companies to look out for anything except their own greed and profits. And let me give you an example of that. Suppose they have the choice of building more pipeline capacity and drilling in proven gas fields in the middle of nowhere, or for expediency sake, can drill a bunch of shallow holes right in the middle of rural communities and farming and ranching country, hydraulically frac them, knowing full well they will also frac the water table and water wells in the process, if nobody stops them they're going to frac the water wells, take the money and run.

 

I'VE GOT A CRIMINAL RECORD IM MARKED FOR LIFE.....

sertain jobs I just won't be given I won't be trusted I'm sorry for the plannet and all life forms on it I don't believe it was a accident if it was to shrink a tumor mybe ok but I no how I would feel if somone stuck a hole in my belly and left me to bleed I supose it would exsplain the funny weather I'm getting over here in hackney...?

 

I'm just wondering, if, the federal government was on 'the job' at the beginning of this explosion and then leak, what did the do, there has already been a law in place to start burning the oil, but why did it take 9-10 days for them (govt.)to allow the controlled burn.

 

SORRY ABOUT MY SPELLING....

I learned a long time ago the next world war will be about resources but I never learned how or why...?

 

The only thing one can hope for in sucess of that thing is that it lowers the amount of oil in the gulf...

I remember the second spill I was on. A compressor site that had two frac tanks set up temporary to catch the excess oil/saltwater, because of a rise in oil on site from some new drilling in the area.
Well, the dude that was supposed to watch the tanks and call the haulers didn't do his job for three days.(took him a three day weekend figuring the two tanks would suffice)
The result was several thousand gallons of oil and salt water spilling, then running down hill, and into a nearby creek. They were able to detain it after two days of digging holes and making dirt berms. My job was to sit on the doser and pull the back hoe out if it got stuck in the mud.

They(about 50 guys) were doing a good job of getting the shit mopped up with the absorbent pads when one of the idiot bosses with Chesapeake decided that he could "wash" the oil away with a fresh water truck.. He ruined about ten acres that Chesapeake quickly bought and made a parking lot out of for the eighteen wheelers or what ever...

Any way, to get off my tangent I remember laying a pipeline through those woods six months or so later and noticing that nothing grew where the salt water had absorbed...no green at all... You could see exactly where the shit had ran down the hills and into the creek(they quit mentioning the creek that still had a sheen on it)...
I worked in that area for about two years after that spill, when I left it was still barren. That little spill isn't but about what this one puts out in twelve hours.
And another thing that bothers me about this spill as opposed to Exon's, is that Exon just spilled a bunch of oil(yes it was horrible), where as this well is producing salt water(the bad kind) that will kill anythig it gets on for a very long time.
Next time I get around a spill I'll get you some pics of the aftermath Stumbler.

 

Bullshit Ace, thanks to Bush/Cheney the federal government is not welcome on drilling operations and they really have no power anymore beyond watching out for nesting raptors and Sage Grouse and speed limits on oilfield roads.

What a fucking joke for someone who consistently claims the federal government is bad and can't do anything right to suddenly be claiming the federal government (now that Barack Obama is the President) should have moved in and taken over an international drilling operation when they don't really have authority.

What hypocritical bullshit Ace, and stupid for you at least. When's the last time you saw the federal government jump in and take over the rescue operations in a coal mine disaster? When's the last time you saw the federal government step in and shut down a drilling operation or a mining operation Ace. You haven't because thanks to their friends in the Federal Government especially George Bush and Dick Cheney, the oil and gas companies and the mining companies got to write not only their own rules but there own tickets.

You want to talk about Government inefficiency Ace. You want to talk about sex, drugs, rock and roll and the regulators and the oil companies literally being in bed together why don't you look right here:

*not_secure_link*www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/washington/11royalty.html?_r=3&hp&oref=slogin

And don't forget to take note of the date, Ace.

 

If you wants to play, you gots to pay, that had always been the first rule of big business! And those in the Gov, has to pay with well, whatever the buyer desires at the present time. Hell, life goes on and on and on!

 

It will but I suspect that even though there was no excuse for the BOP's not to work, British Petroleum has had things they could have done to stop the flow, but didn't because if they can drill a relief well, and kill it they can get two wells out of the deal instead of just one.

That's pretty shitty, if its true, and I'm thinking it might be especially if there's a $75 million cap on damages.

But that's not the record. Back in the day when rail roads first got started there got to be so many wrecks and derailments and so many people hurt and injured that the courts started to rule against the railroad companies; sort of.

See at first the Courts met the Railroad companies half way. The ruled that if people were killed in an accident that was their loss. But if people were injured and crippled the Railroads were responsible for taking care of them. So, what was the Railroads response? When they had a derailment the first thing their crews were told to do was kill the survivors.

By all means get the pictures. Back in 1974 there was no such thing as a cell phone, or digital camera, or the internet, and instead of carrying Cameras we carried guns. But if I'd carried a camera instead I could have taken pictures of the AMOCO and Plate Pipeline storage tanks over flowing. And the oil companies just digging ditches and earthen pits to catch the overflow.

I could have take pictures of my friend who was working at the refinery seven days a week and ten hours a day, patching and repairing storage tanks that had not been used in 25 years to hold the overflow of oil.

While in the meantime people were panicking and hording gasoline, and the government had to close gas stations on Sundays and they were talking rationing gas.

And why was all that? Because the federal government had said no to the Alaskan Pipeline and slapped Wind Fall Profits Taxes on their asses. That's the last time any government in the world tried that.

I also have to confess that even though I've justified it or rationalized it as best I could, I've taken a lot of shit on this forum and else where for being concerned about the environment and being a liberal democrat working in the oilfield.

But like I said I could usually get around it some how. That was true when I went into what they called the Pinedale Anti-cline about 10 years ago. I didn't like the country even before then, it was too high, too cold and too windy snowy. And yet it was famous for the most abundant wildlife in Wyoming, which for thousands of years had not only lived in that country, but used it to migrate in for hundreds of miles.

And they weren't kidding. When I was there in 2002 I ended up dodging every big Game animal in Wyoming except Mountain Goats, Big Horn Sheep and Bears, in the fucking highway. They were everywhere.

Then when I went back in 2008 there was a big controversy over the population of Sage Grouse being possibly endangered. Fuck the Sage Grouse. What about everything else? Where were the Antelope, Deer, Elk, Moose, and all smaller creatures that had been there just six years before. They were scattered to the winds and dying off because what they call the Jonah Field had taken everything including the migration routes they'd used for thousands of years.

And you know what? Everybody, from the game and fish department, to the BLM, from the Forest Service, to the Gas Companies and the Drilling rigs and even the local residents knew and had been forewarned that would happen. But they did it anyway because even if it changed what had been for thousands of years, it was worth it to a few of them to make a lot of money for a few years.

By the way the formation water out there will turn a black rubber tarp bright orange where ever it runs for more than a day. In nearly two years in that field and asking everything from old hands, to company men, and even piss testers (safety engineers) not one of them could or would tell me what was in that water. And there is no telling how many billion gallons they have brought to the surface so far.