AP Photo - National Guard members talk with waitresses about the procedures for filing an oil spill claim against BP.
Posted on 06/13/2010 6:39:37 PM PDT by GonzoII
As I noted Tuesday, there is growing evidence that BP's oil well - technically called the "well casing" or "well bore" - has suffered damage beneath the level of the sea floor.
The evidence is growing stronger and stronger that there is substantial damage beneath the sea floor. Indeed, it appears that BP officials themselves have admitted to such damage. This has enormous impacts on both the amount of oil leaking into the Gulf, and the prospects for quickly stopping the leak this summer.
On May 31st, the Washington Post noted:
Sources at two companies involved with the well said that BP also discovered new damage inside the well below the seafloor and that, as a result, some of the drilling mud that was successfully forced into the well was going off to the side into rock formations.
"We discovered things that were broken in the sub-surface," said a BP official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. He said that mud was making it "out to the side, into the formation."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonsblog.com ...
While this is no laughing matter, that video is one of the funniest things I have EVER seen!!!!!!!
Safe to say the entire gulf coast would be gone and done...living in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas..no longer an option and Mexico loses most of its land as well.
I can believe something like this happening. Our planet has had many many things happen in its history.
AP Photo - National Guard members talk with waitresses about the procedures for filing an oil spill claim against BP.
Don't ever listen to me! I know nothing and am filled with hyperbole! :)
What are we talking about by "gone?" Economies gone, or actual land gone?
How does a well fall in?
Do they know where the defective strata is and are the relief wells going to tap in below that area?
One scenario- tourism and fishing economies become unsustainable.
Another scenario- land becomes uninhabitable because it beomes toxic, either from the crude, or the dispersant, or both.
There was a report a while ago from a Russian mineral agency to Medvedev that it is their belief that this event will destroy the south east US. They stated that the core exit 9500 could become a gas as the water heats over the summer, and that it would be sucked up into rain clouds and rained out over land, killing everything.
I don’t know if this is true or even possible, but someone seems to think that pouring millions of gallons of mutagenic, carcinogenic chemicals into the water is better than oil being visible on the surface...
The speculative rhetoric is really getting wild....
Ernest, please read this stark assessment/ possible scenario that was posted here on FR earlier today, that answer is contained herein:
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6593/648967
I was speaking on the discussed theory in the thread of the gomex turning into a sink hole.
It’s not a good idea to second guess the theoildrum.com. They have a clue and only lack information about the well and the surrounding geological formation to come to a definitive answer.
It’s no surprise the well casing it not intact the entire distance since we already know that 1. BP didn’t install a rubber seal in a transition from bigger to smaller well casing. 2. Their cement job failed to secure the well casing to the surrounding earth (called formation), that is, pumping cement into any void between the outside of the well casing to the surrounding earth to turn those voids into solid mass so nothing leaks around or past, that didn’t happen at certain elevation.
The geology of the area is like...sand, mud, sand, mud in layer after layer following the seasonal outflows of Mississippi silts. It’s not like they drilled through any solid rock formation.
Along with the oil and gas flowing up and out is abrasives like sand at high pressure at least 8,000psi at the BOP/wellhead, the reservoir of oil/gas is under pressure of near 13,000psi finding its way up starting at the bottom of the well casing about an 8 inch pipe in diameter. Gets larger in diameter as you go up to about 36” at the well head.
Knowing these tidbits, you can see where erosion can take place anywhere along the well casing where it is not intact. Erosion (sand traveling at high speed = sandblasting or in this case water jetting) can wear steel pipe into non-existence or the earth itself causing more voids as it flows freely to the least path of resistance or maybe worse, turbulent areas of flow causing carving.
So you can see why TOD foresees a complete failure in the future. Anchor lines to the BOP will be conformation and fumbles observing oil seeping anywhere from the mud around the casing and sea floor means the end is near and get the nuke ready.
No one dare speak of hurricane related complications for at the very least BP has to pull off and let oil gush freely into the GOM until seas settle down.
They all pretty much disgust me! Just a bunch of hot air after all the funding they can spread around to each other. It’s appauling!
I heard a scientist state that the carbon deal could be completely solved, and all other issues they are screaming about.... if there was a massive tree planting world wide to replace alot of the deforrestation that has occured. No Coppenhagen...No Carbon worries....but then again there would be no monies flying into the coffers of those pushing the “green” movement.
The original cement seal to close off the well would have been placed in the hard, “good” strong rock above the oil producing rock. (The good, hard rock that has kept that oil from floating upwards and in place for the last 100 million years or whatever).
That seal is what blew because BP rush things (IMHO from what I have read). One (or both) of the “relief” wells will be used to pump heavy mud and then cement into and around the well in the good, hard rock. I wonder if the deeper relief well might “suck” to reduce the pressures, and a shallower well could “blow” the mud and cement in?
The relief wells can use directional drilling, and they even have magnetometers now to guide the new wells to within inches of the existing iron casing.
The nuke option used by the Russkies was before this accuracy was available. They drilled down into the hard rock above the reservoir and got at close as they could to the bad well. Then set the nuke off to shift the hard rock around to block the bad well. I suppose one could be hundreds or thousands of feet away and it would work. (Or the 4 out of 5 times the russkies SAY it worked!)
They will get this well stopped. The Gulf, in time will recover. Maybe in one fishing season, maybe in 20 seasons. (I think it will be lower that feared).
And, Obama will use this terrible accident to his full advantage. (See my tagline.)
The concern about carbon is a devious scheme to extreme money from us....it is trully a Global Warming hoax....And they are changing the scheme now labeling CO2 As A POLLUNTANT....RATHER AMAZING SINCE PLANT LIFE DEPENDS ON IT...
And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood.
Revelations 8:8
I might add that this is why relief wells can not be production wells because they travel at angles where abrasives flows can wear right though pipe casing. Production wells have to be vertical.
This whole thread has a lot of hyperbole...and scary scenarios...most of which I believe to be over the top.
Don’t get me wrong here, because I think that those things in Revelation are going to happen exactly as told to us... it’s just that I don’t think it’s now or we’re there yet ... :-)
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