Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

The new stack of equipment just installed on the wellhead will include comprehensive instrumentation to take measurements that the team can use to understand what is going on in the wellbore and to help plan the kill operation. Included in that is pressure measurement capability. By shutting in the well temporarily, and carefully monitoring [and data logging] the characteristics of the pressure build up, the team can gain some valuable information about the integrity of the casing and original wellhead.

A Bloomberg Businessweek post at BP Delays Test of Leaking Gulf Well Until U.S. Gives Go Ahead has an update on details (testing delayed) and also seems to further answer my question:

BP had planned to begin closing the valves to shut off the flow from its Gulf of Mexico well for the first time since a deadly explosion 85 days ago. Shutting the valves will allow BP to measure the pressure in the well and determine whether the oil and gas flow can be stopped without it breaching the well and erupting through the seafloor.

If the test clears the way, BP may end the biggest U.S. oil spill in hours rather than weeks.

Once the test begins, BP, based in London, may need 48 hours of data to declare the well safe to seal, Kent Wells, the company’s senior vice president for exploration and production said yesterday at a press conference in Houston. It may know within six hours if it can’t be sealed, he said.

“If all of a sudden, they have a pressure drop, they’re going to open that thing wide up and leave it alone,” Don Van Nieuwenhuise, director of professional geosciences at the University of Houston, said yesterday in an interview. “A quick drop means a leak closer to the seabed, where oil and gas might work their way to the surface.”

Emphasis added by TPC.

[touchring]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

It didn't exist yet. The new ram stack had to be designed, built and tested -- seems like they did it in record time to me.

This proves that the original Cameron BOP used by Transocean doesn't work. Was it Made in China?

[Sharky]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

Make sense, but why didn't they install the BOP earlier?

It didn't exist yet. The new ram stack had to be designed, built and tested -- seems like they did it in record time to me.

[touchring]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

The new stack of equipment just installed on the wellhead will include comprehensive instrumentation to take measurements that the team can use to understand what is going on in the wellbore and to help plan the kill operation. Included in that is pressure measurement capability. By shutting in the well temporarily, and carefully monitoring [and data logging] the characteristics of the pressure build up, the team can gain some valuable information about the integrity of the casing and original wellhead. Recall that the whole sequence of events of this blowout started because something downhole failed and allowed gas to enter a well that was supposed to be completely isolated from all producing horizon[s].

Every bit of information the team can extract from the well is useful to either refine the design of the kill program or avoid yet another nasty surprise...

Make sense, but why didn't they install the BOP earlier?

Makes me wonder if the company that supplied the original BOP actually makes BOP that works.

[GRG55]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

I too found your explanations earlier in this thread to be most helpful. Thanks.

May I ask -- why would BP test the new BOP now, before they are ready to pump kill mud down hole via the relief well?

You yourself said just above: Why test the BOP before they are ready with the down hole mud? Don't they risk further damage to the casing or hole in between?

The new stack of equipment just installed on the wellhead will include comprehensive instrumentation to take measurements that the team can use to understand what is going on in the wellbore and to help plan the kill operation. Included in that is pressure measurement capability. By shutting in the well temporarily, and carefully monitoring [and data logging] the characteristics of the pressure build up, the team can gain some valuable information about the integrity of the casing and original wellhead. Recall that the whole sequence of events of this blowout started because something downhole failed and allowed gas to enter a well that was supposed to be completely isolated from all producing horizon[s].

Every bit of information the team can extract from the well is useful to either refine the design of the kill program or avoid yet another nasty surprise...

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

For the duration of the test, which will be a minimum of 6 hours and could extend up to 48 hours, the three ram capping stack will be closed and all sub-sea containment systems (namely, the Q4000 and Helix Producer) will be temporarily suspended, effectively shutting in the well.

I too found your explanations earlier in this thread to be most helpful. Thanks.

May I ask -- why would BP test the new BOP now, before they are ready to pump kill mud down hole via the relief well?

You yourself said just above:

The ideal situation would be to momentarily stop the oil and gas flow completely at the moment that kill fluid mud begins to be pumped into the wellbore from the relief well to ensure that it flows down...and not up.

Why test the BOP before they are ready with the down hole mud? Don't they risk further damage to the casing or hole in between?

[don]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010

My name is Clint Guidry. I am a third generation Louisiana Commercial Shrimp Fisherman. I am sixty-two years old and a lifelong resident of Lafitte, LA. I am a Vietnam Veteran and the son of a WWII Veteran.

I am on the Board of Directors of the Louisiana Shrimp Association and the Shrimp Harvester Representative on the LA Shrimp Task Force created by Executive Order of Gov. Bobby Jindal.


I have been invited here today to testify about the current disaster that is occurring concerning the blowout and oil spill from the British Petroleum (BP) DeepWater Horizon Catastrophe and what effects it is having on the fishermen and the families I represent.


Ladies and gentlemen, HELL has come to South Louisiana. A HELL created by British Petroleum (BP) and a failed U.S. Government response to the disaster.


First of all I would like to put into perspective BP’s role in this disaster and show them for what they are.


BP committed fraud in furnishing oil spill response data required to obtain a permit to enable them to drill the MC 252 location. The reality is they were not prepared to handle or control a blowout and resulting oil spill of this magnitude. Simply put, they LIED.


BP, in their haste to cut corners and save money in the completion process on the well location at MC 252, exhibited willful neglect in their duties to complete the well safely which led to the blowout and explosion that killed eleven people. Eleven souls that will never come back. Eleven families with mothers and fathers and wives and children. Children who will never see their fathers again.


This neglect and loss of life constitutes negligent homicide and all involved should be arrested and charged as such.


So now I have established what kind of people we are dealing with, LIARS and KILLERS. It appalls me that they are still in total control of this disaster after almost a month has passed.


Now I would like to speak about our Federal Response to the disaster.


The first response to the disaster was the U.S. Coast Guard, who has assumed duties of protecting BP and aiding them in downplaying the spill, providing BP representatives with armed guards to keep away the press and TV camera crews and sending representatives to local communities to provide false information on safety and health dangers related to the oil spill and the chemical dispersants used.


The second response came from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who in an effort to minimize the spill and save BP face, unleashed two dangerous chemical dispersants which were injected into the water column at the sea floor and sprayed on the surface over the oil and workers in the areas of the spill and along the coast close to coastal fishing communities. These chemical dispersants contain solvents that are dangerous to marine populations in the Gulf and coastal estuaries and were never fully tested for dangers to humans. In the product sheets for these chemical dispersants, there is always a disclaimer: “This listing does not mean that EPA approves, recommends, licenses, certifies or authorizes the use of this product on an oil discharge.”


And that IS exactly what EPA did and is still doing with total disregard to marine populations that will collapse because of it and human populations that will get sick and may die because of this decision.


“Kill the Ocean, Save the Beaches,” a “Trade-Off” decision. Under what logic does this work? The Gulf is the Mother and the Estuaries are the nurseries. If the Mother dies, there will be no children to incubate.


The reality is the oil and chemical dispersants are entering our estuaries as we speak. The “Trade-Off” logic FAILED.


As I stated, I represent commercial shrimp fishermen. I have members, friends and family presently working to contain and clean-up the spill. They are relating to me BP’s total disregard for providing workers with proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).


I have extensive experience working with hazardous chemicals associated with petroleum. In the 80’s and 90’s I worked with Brown and Root Industrial Services as a supervisor, General Superintendant and Area Superintendant. I supervised maintenance work in oil refineries and was responsible for worker safety and getting the work done on time. Safety and health of my workers ALWAYS came first with me.


I am being told by workers and family members that proper respiratory protection is NOT being provided to the fishermen workers.


Petroleum, as it surfaces and spreads over the water and heats, releases dangerous carcinogens and these carcinogens are most concentrated directly over the leaking well and surrounding area where my fishermen are working. There has been NO respiratory protective PPE issued to workers working directly over this most dangerous area, even as a precaution to have available given they are working 60 miles offshore. In fact, when some individuals brought their own respirators, they were told by BP representatives on site that if they wore the respirators they would be released from the job. That disturbs me greatly.


My fishermen are more concerned with losing their jobs and the income they desperately need to pay bills and feed their families than their health. From years of experience I know that, when protected, work in very hazardous environments can be completed safely using the proper PPE.


Is BP sacrificing my fishermen’s health and lives to protect themselves from liability issues at a later date?


How can we believe liars and killers when they say the worksite is safe?


This is the same game plan Exxon used in Alaska 20 years ago and Alaska fishermen ¬never collected a penny in settlements from Exxon for sickness and deaths related to working clean-up after the Valdez spill. Exxon never issued respiratory protection to fishermen in the Valdez spill.


These workers safety issues are my top PRIORITY and need to be addressed IMMEDIATELY.


If we are going to allow BP “We the people” 5th Amendment rights in court and use “Taking of Future Profits” to let them off the hook for full responsibility of this disaster, we will be playing the same part as the Alaskans did in the Exxon Valdez Playbook that BP is using on us.


It is past time for our elected officials, Departments and Agencies to abandon the influence of “Big Oil’s” “Big Money” and do what they were elected and appointed to do, represent and protect “We the People” who voted them in office.


This Administration needs to treat BP like what they really are, LIARS and KILLERS and take control of this monumental disaster.


This administration was elected to office on a platform of “CHANGE.” So far, as it applies to “Big Oil” it is business as usual. The only change we are experiencing in dealing with “Big Oil” is being “Short-Changed.”


On behalf of the Commercial Shrimpers I represent and the coastal communities who are losing their way of life, I ask that you take control of this out of control situation.


Clint Guidry
Louisiana Shrimp Association

[GRG55]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

Excellent explanation! If I understand, once the flow is shut down, and the pressure injecting the mud is equal to the reservoir pressure, than all pressures are equal and as long as the mud is denser than the mixture in the well, it will sink like a rock being dropped into a pond.

You shouldn't have added the asterisk. Hasn't this been the huge concern all along? If the casing has deteriorated due to being sand blasted for 2 1/2 months, once they try to close the valves on the BOP, don't they risk a sub ocean floor rupture of the casing, which means we're back to a specialized top kill at the relief well intersection points? Ahhhh, isn't this close to Armageddon for this well?

I still think the Armageddon doom and gloomers are way over the top. Yes the casing or wellhead could be compromised for any number of reasons. However, it isn't a big issue unless there is a flow path all the way from the bottom of the well to the surface behind the casing. Possible, but highly improbable - despite the histrionics from Matt Simmons and other media hounds [Simmons has earned my permanent disrespect for his utterly unprofessional behaviour during this incident...instead of using his considerable knowledge, network and profile to dig out facts and help the public understand what might be happening he has instead become the worst sort of stereotype of a grandstanding "look-at-me-I'm-so-important" investment banker].

This well is going to be killed using a relief well...and the team won't quit until they achieve that.

From May 28/10:

...Every engineer I know in this business understood early on, once all the efforts to close the BOPs failed, that the only reasonable probability of success method to cap this blowout is the relief well. Talk of "junk shots", top kills, nuclear explosives, sinking a battleship on the wellhead [here's a link to that fantasy suggestion], or pumping cement directly into the blowout wellhead is wishful thinking played out large in the international media.

BP is tonight reporting that the three ram BOP stack [what they call the new "Capping Stack"] has been successfully placed and secured.

Capping Stack Installed on MC252 Well

Release date: 12 July 2010

The three ram capping stack was installed on the Deep Water Horizon LMRP at 7 p.m. CDT. The stack completes the installation of the new sealing cap.

Following installation of the capping stack and in line with the procedure approved by the National Incident Commander and Unified Area Command, the well integrity test will begin July 13 on the MC252 well.


For the duration of the test, which will be a minimum of 6 hours and could extend up to 48 hours, the three ram capping stack will be closed and all sub-sea containment systems (namely, the Q4000 and Helix Producer) will be temporarily suspended, effectively shutting in the well.

It is expected, although cannot be assured, that no oil will be released to the ocean for the duration of the test. This will not however be an indication that flow from the wellbore has been permanently stopped...

...The sealing cap system never before has been deployed at these depths or under these conditions, and its efficiency and ability to contain the oil and gas cannot be assured...

...Relief well operations continue throughout this period and remain the sole means to permanently seal and isolate the well.

[oddlots]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

All makes sense. Cudos for laying it out so clearly. Interesting how the limitations / advantages of the different ways of attacking the problem interact. I take it from what you say above that the extreme limitations of controlling the well from the wellhead down takes on a different significance in the context of a bottom kill with relief wells. In a supporting role it (the wellhead conditions) could be the deciding factor; as a star it is (was) a bust.

All too true to life.

Immense pressure on these guys. I wish them god's speed.

[we_are_toast]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

Excellent explanation! If I understand, once the flow is shut down, and the pressure injecting the mud is equal to the reservoir pressure, than all pressures are equal and as long as the mud is denser than the mixture in the well, it will sink like a rock being dropped into a pond.

You shouldn't have added the asterisk. Hasn't this been the huge concern all along? If the casing has deteriorated due to being sand blasted for 2 1/2 months, once they try to close the valves on the BOP, don't they risk a sub ocean floor rupture of the casing, which means we're back to a specialized top kill at the relief well intersection points? Ahhhh, isn't this close to Armageddon for this well?

[GRG55]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

This seems counterintuitive. I would think that choking the flow would produce more pressure in the well making it more difficult for the relief wells.

Pressure is important, but not the main issue; flow rate is. Let us suppose that the blowout well could be closed off completely at surface right now. In that situation the maximum pressure at the bottom of the non-flowing well would be the shut-in reservoir pressure...no more than that. The mud weight that will be used to kill the well must result in a column of fluid with a gradient that creates a pressure at the bottom of the well that is higher than the shut-in reservoir pressure in order to prevent any flow from the reservoir into the wellbore.

The first problem is that the primary stress pressure in these deep water Gulf of Mexico wells is close to the reservoir pressures. The primary stress pressure is the pressure at which the reservoir rock breaks down and fractures. The problem in this situation is that if the mud weight is too high and the bottom hole gradient exceeds the primary stress limit, the rock breaks down creating the risk that the mud leaks off into the reservoir through the fractures that are created, thus losing the mud column in the wellbore that is required to maintain the pressure gradient needed to keep the well controlled. [I hope my explanation makes sense so far]. This narrow difference between reservoir pressures and primary stress limits is one reason these wells are quite complex to drill and why you have heard in some reports that drilling these wells is like a "balancing act"...the drilling mud weights simply cannot be too high.

Now let's imagine the situation when the relief well is completed. The blowout well is flowing up from the bottom of the original wellbore. The relief well will intersect that original wellbore several thousand feet above the bottom. The relief well will be used to pump drilling mud into that flow stream...but the problem is that the mud cannot be "too heavy" and the desire is to have the mud flow downward to the bottom of the well...which is against the high flow rate of the oil and gas that is flowing upward from the bottom of the well. This is the reason that all the engineers I know gave the [ultimately failed] "top kill" an almost zero probability of working - they were trying to inject the mud through the small diverter connection on the wellhead into a fast flowing oil and gas stream.

The ideal situation would be to momentarily stop the oil and gas flow completely at the moment that kill fluid mud begins to be pumped into the wellbore from the relief well to ensure that it flows down...and not up. If the flow cannot be stopped completely*, then choking the well at the seafloor to reduce the flowrate as much as possible is the next best thing. This, by the way, was the theory behind the "junk shot". If they could have plugged up the failed BOP enough to choke the flow they thought there might have been a chance to pump enough kill fluid mud through the small diverter connection on the wellhead to kill the well. Instead the 'junk shot" didn't work, and the mud got carried upward by the high flow rates and ended up in the ocean.

Hope this all makes sense.

* One reason that the well may not be able to be shut-in at the wellhead with the new BOP rams is because the casing or wellhead may have been compromised and is now incapable of containing the shut-in pressure from the reservoir.

[we_are_toast]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

Regardless, even the ability to choke the flow significantly at the top of the well improves the ability to kill the well from the bottom using the relief well.

This seems counterintuitive. I would think that choking the flow would produce more pressure in the well making it more difficult for the relief wells.

[GRG55]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

Is it safe to say that if they can land the transition spool and secure it in such deep difficult conditions, that placing the other pieces, which likely involve similar underwater protocols, should be straightforward? Or are there additional major hurdles with the BOP which come with a larger more awkward device? Because if placing the BOP is largely similar to the transition spool, this could be very good news.

Nothing is "routine" at these depths, but placing a BOP is not something that hasn't been done many times before [on every well drilled]. The difference is that they have to place it over the flowing well effluent stream. But you are correct that landing and securing the transition spool under those conditions is a good sign that the other operations should be able to be accomplished in reasonable time...with a bit of good luck on their side.

[Jay]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

At 5:00 pm Central Daylight Time today, BP is reporting the transition spool has been successfully landed and operations to secure the bolts that hold it in position are underway. So far so good...

Is it safe to say that if they can land the transition spool and secure it in such deep difficult conditions, that placing the other pieces, which likely involve similar underwater protocols, should be straightforward? Or are there additional major hurdles with the BOP which come with a larger more awkward device? Because if placing the BOP is largely similar to the transition spool, this could be very good news.

[GRG55]

Re: Update on BP's top kill efforts, now largest spill in US History

At 5:00 pm Central Daylight Time today, BP is reporting the transition spool has been successfully landed and operations to secure the bolts that hold it in position are underway. So far so good...