Oil Rigs Just Don't Explode - Al Qaeda? 9/11-II?

today | epluribus_2

[epluribus_2]

If you wanted to punch the U.S. right now, that would have been one effective as H^^^ way to do it, with many bad consequences.

[gaijin]

Venezuela is not close by, but it is true that Iranian forces were there in Venezuela, recently, performing some kind of exercise.

That is a long-shot, OK?

[Bigun]

rigs will explode if the mud weight is to light and high pressure gas will force the mud up if to light.. the explosion is caused by high pressure natural gas mixed with oil

Or if, as I suspect happened in this case, the well starts swallowing the weight material (mud) in the well bore and whoever is supposed to be watching that isn't for some reason!

[chicken head]

thats true—

[chicken head]

the BOP’s or rams is the last line of defense on a blowout..if the mud engineer was doing his job right it would have never got to that point

[Cricket24]

I have been wondering the same thing since it happened! Of course the media isn’t even thinking about that! They are worthless!

[GonzoGOP]

Oil Rigs Just Don't Explode

Tell that to they guys on Piper Alpha. Somebody forgot to tighten the end cap on a pipe and 118 guys ended up dead. Those not killed in the initial blast had to decide between freezing north sea water and fire hot enough to melt the platform down to water level.

[Bigun]

My GUESS, because I surely don’t KNOW, is that they fractured the formation while testing the cement job and the well drank enough of the weight material so quickly that the well blew out before they realized what was happening. BOP won’t close because of some hardened tool being in exactly the wrong place at the wrong time.

[chicken head]

BS- fire will melt forged steel like butter- a derrick will fall just by fire - i can heat steel and bend it with my bare hands..

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

IMR 4350 seems to have the key info on this [quote]

At 30,000psi of pressure you don’t need an explosion. Crap just starts coming apart.

The gas ignited when it got to the surface and settled into the rig.

From all acounts here is the screw up.

They assumed the cement held and they opened the BOP with that assumption. The cement didn’t hold and a gas bubble shot up to the well.

[unquote]

[GonzoGOP]

A foreign submarine in the Gulf of Mexico is not possible, unless of course we allowed it to be there.

Don't forget Cuba borders the Gulf of Mexico. Fairly hard to stop them from having a submarine in their own ports.

[GonzoGOP]

Why are you calling BS on me. I was pointing out that Piper Alpha melted down to water level.

[bwc2221]

Rather than focusing on this disaster when it happened, Obama spent a week with town hall meetings, the U-M commencement speech and the Correspondent's dinner.

It will be interesting to see how the media spins this to blame George Bush and Sarah Palin.

[Freddd]

The real point is why did Napalitano not Know the Department of Homeland security to could have helped early on ( and didn’t), and that Obama wasn’t concerned at all...but he did have the Muslim Entreprenerueal Summit on his mind and had to attend to...

Heckuva Job, Barry… Napolitano Did Not Even Know Defense Dept. Had Oil Slick Equipment
it is still the government, in this case the Coast Guard, that has the final say. A law passed a year after the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster makes the owner of a rig or vessel responsible for cleaning up a spill. But oversight of the cleanup is designated to the Coast Guard, with advice from other federal agencies.
Obama and Napalitano, asleep at the wheel, AGAIN.
Ms. Napolitano acknowledging even as late as Thursday afternoon that she did not know if the Defense Department even had equipment that might be helpful.

Can you imagine that? The secretary of the DHS “did not know if the Defense Department even had equipment that might be helpful.”
... we’re talking STAGGERING incompetence here:
By Friday afternoon, she said, the Defense Department had agreed to send two large military transport planes to spray chemicals that can disperse the oil while it is still in the Gulf.
Perhaps if the oil breached the Louisiana levees, then caught on fire, and then turned New Orleans into a Dresden-like inferno, the President would stop campaigning for a couple of days and actually pay attention to his own, personal Katrina. Even The New York Times has noticed, decrying the President’s lackadaisical response.

[chicken head]

im saying fire will do that to steel— go on youtude and see rigs that melted down to nothing

[phockthis]

sfl

[MsLady]

That’s right, Rosie said so.

[sefarkas]

Mud is a vital part of drilling operations. It provides hydrostatic pressure on the borehole wall to prevent uncontrolled production of reservoir fluids, lubricates and cools the drill bit, carries the drill cuttings up to the surface and forms a "filter-cake" on the borehole wall to prevent drilling fluid invasion. To fulfill these tasks effectively, the mud contains carefully chosen additives to control its chemical and rheological properties.

Drilling mud is usually a shear-thinning non-Newtonian fluid of variable viscosity. When it is under more shear, such as in the pipe to the bit and through the bit nozzles, viscosity is lower which reduces pumping-power requirements. When returning to the surface through the much roomier annulus it is under less shear stress and becomes more viscous, and hence better able to carry the rock cuttings. Bentonite is commonly used as an additive to control and maintain viscosity, and also has the additional benefit of forming a mud-cake (also known as a filter cake) on the bore-hole wall, preventing fluid invasion.

Barite is commonly used to "weight" the mud to maintain adequate hydrostatic pressure down-hole. This is critical in a drilling operation to avoid a kick and ultimately a blowout from uncontrolled production of formation fluids. The "mud-pits" at the surface have their levels carefully monitored, since an increase in the mud level indicates a kick is taking place, and may require shutting in the well and circulating heavier weighted drilling mud to prevent further formation fluid or gas production.

Drilling fluid must be chemically compatible with the formations being drilled. Salinity must be chosen so as not to cause clay swelling or other problems. Mud can be "oil-based" or "water-based". In many areas oil-based muds are being phased out, as they are less environmentally friendly, although in some formations they are necessary because of chemical compatibility issues. Offshore rigs typically use synthetic oil based mud.

Prior to drilling a well, a "mud program" will be worked out according to the expected geology, in which products to be used, concentrations of those products, and fluid specifications at different depths are all predetermined. As the hole is drilled and gets deeper, more mud is required, and the mud engineer is responsible for making sure that the new mud to be added is made up to the required specifications. The chemical composition of the mud will be designed so as to stabilize the hole. It is sometimes necessary to completely change the mud to drill through a particular subsurface layer.

As drilling proceeds, the mud engineer will get information from the mud logger about progress through the geological zones, and will make regular physical and chemical checks on the drilling mud. In particular the Marsh funnel viscosity and the density are frequently checked. As drilling proceeds, the mud tends to accumulate small particles of the rocks which are being drilled through, and its properties change. It is the job of the mud engineer to specify additives to correct these changes, or to partially or wholly replace the mud when necessary. He or she must also keep an eye on the equipment which is used to pump the mud and to remove particles, and be prepared if the geologists' predictions are not entirely correct, or if other problems arise.

It is sometimes necessary to stabilize the wall of a borehole at a particular depth by pumping cement down through the mud system, and the mud engineer is sometimes in charge of this process.

The mud engineer is well supported by the mud supply company with computer aids and manuals dealing with all known problems and their solution, but it is his or her responsibility to get it right in a situation where mistakes can be very costly indeed.

A mud engineer's job may involve long shifts of over 12 hours a day. Typical offshore and foreign work schedules are four weeks working and four weeks off.

One of the most important mud properties is the mud weight (density). If the mud weight exceeds the fracture pressure of the formation, the formation may fracture and large quantities of mud are lost to it, in a situation referred to as lost circulation. These cracks can also cause water to seep into the well bore or into a hydrocarbon bearing zone, which would likely impede the ability of the formation to produce oil (or require the separation of large quantities of water).

Conversely, if the mud weight is too low it will have a hydrostatic pressure that is less than the formation pressure. This will cause pressurized fluid in the formation to flow into the wellbore and make its way to the surface. This is referred to as a formation "kick" and can lead to a potentially deadly blowout if the invading fluid reaches the surface uncontrolled.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mud_engineer

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

E.L.F. ?

Green peace ?

Take your pick i don’t trust any of them it could be one of hundreds including A Q !

[MsLady]

Like the perfect storm. God bless those who lost their lives and their families.

[Still Thinking]

Oil Rigs Just Don't Explode - Al Qaeda? 9/11-II?

Obama? Seriously, I was wondering that a couple days ago. He comes out in SOTU for drilling, which is against what you would expect given his politics, and pleases the middle and conservatives. His base is upset, but will go ape$hit if he actually does it. So if he has an excuse not to follow through, it keeps him out of trouble with his base. I’ve seen no evidence that they had anything to do with it, nor am I familiar enough with the situation to know if it might be sabotage in disguise, but the timing certainly seems suspicious.