Leaked report: Government fears Deepwater Horizon well could become unchecked gusher

Al.com ^ | 4-30-10 | Ben Raines

[jagusafr]

“We need a deep water version of Fred Adair.”

I think you’re referring to Red Adair. Of course, sounds like Fred Astaire would be appropriate, too, given the amount of tap dancing that’s going on.

Colonel, USAFR

[dragnet2]

A confidential government report on the unfolding spill disaster now fears the well could become an unchecked gusher shooting millions of gallons of oil per day into the Gulf.

I thought we were almost out of oil?

[MozarkDawg]

What if this was NOT an accident-
What if it was sabotage?

I have opined on another message board that it is quite possible this was no accident -- I did/do not imply whatever that 0bama and/or Biden were down in the Gulf with scuba gear, just that it is incredibly convenient that not only will this catastrophe stop us from developing our own resources, get away from dependence on foreign sources, but also whatever evidence there might be is now sitting at the bottom of the Gulf.

[Tex-Con-Man]

I read somewhere that a concrete cap is being fabricated.

I'm sure the fabricating, curing and shipping of it would take weeks...but I'm sure there are freepers out there who would have better technical information about this subject than I.

[CommonJudge]

Please check out this link, and scrool down a bit to it.

copied from http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1367.htm

copiedMay 1, 2010

US Orders Blackout Over North Korean Torpedoing Of Gulf Of Mexico Oil Rig

[Smokin' Joe]

Can leaks like this occur naturally?

Yes!

Natural oil seeps have been a tool for those exploring for oil, and have led to some major discoveries, including offshore oil near Santa Barbara California.

[GonzoGOP]

I don’t know that I’d use a nuke, but a big enough explosion on the sea bed would probably work...

Or just crack up the rock formation holding back the oil so that instead of having one big leak you would have thousands of little ones. It is easier to plug the one big leak. The problem is that they are in a catch 22. They can't install a new BOP until they cut off the pipe. But the crimped pipe is what is slowing down the leak. So if they cut off the pipe, and then can't get the new BOP on immediately they are going to have a spill 10 times worse than they do now.

The guys who make that call are either going to be heroes or villains. No middle ground on this one.

[Larry - Moe and Curly]

“...fears the well could become an unchecked gusher shooting millions of gallons of oil per day into the Gulf.”

I seem to remember Pemex having a similar problem in the Southern Gulf back in the 70’s. Took them a couple (several?) months to plug it.

[Tolsti2]

Man the oil market is insane. Why no surge? 2 or 3 years ago if there was even the slightest notion of a hiccup in supply the price would fly up 25-30%.. Even when there was a possible hurricane it would shoot up.

When a real supply is being thrown out, barely a blip now.

[spokeshave]

There was a case in the early days of on land production that a oil strike was so great in pressure it blew the pipe out into the sky...about half a mile of pipe..!

[dennisw]

Curing concrete takes too long. You could pour a huge steel or iron block or cap and use it within days.

Say a 30ft x 30ft x 8ft thick. Drop it on the mutha.

[NVDave]

An order of magnitude is indeed 10 times larger or smaller. It is like saying

you had 100 of something, now you have 1000. That’s an “order of magnitude increase.”

The exponent issue comes about like this:

100 = 1.0E02

1000 = 1.0E03

in old-timey FORTRAN type notation.

[dennisw]

I think a properly placed nuke would glass it over and seal it

[Texas Fossil]

we need a miracle.

We need the Best Engineers and for the Government to butt-out of the process of stopping the flow. And for the prayers of the Nation.

[rednesss]

How was this unfinished well contributing to “supply” beforehand??

[NVDave]

Curing concrete need not take weeks. Concrete curing can be accelerated with additives. Depending on the structure, you could have something usable in five to seven days.

Then there is hydraulic concrete. It hardens under water.

[calex59]

You read it wrong, it is 210,000 gallons a day, 5000 barrels. This is not the disaster they are trying to paint it. If the well head goes it may become that but there have been larger leaks in the past.

[GonzoGOP]

I think a properly placed nuke would glass it over and seal it

When we did the underground testing in Nevada one of the nukes cracked open a natural gas seam. They were still burning off the gas years later. Nukes don't glaze very deep, there is no glass on the floor of Bikini, Saratoga is sitting on good old fashioned sand. And the glass on the desert at Trinity was only a few millimeters think. Pressure that can blow apart steel pipe isn't going to have too much problems breaking through at most a few centimeters of glass. But nukes do shatter rock extremely well.

[444Flyer]

“...Can leaks like this occur naturally? (i am in no way suggesting this was.) The earth is always shifting around a bit so it would seem only natural that this can occur in nature. Has there ever been an oil spill in nature? This is pure curiosity.”

Natural oil seeps are by far the prominent cause of deposits in ocean water.

“NATURAL OIL SEEPS”

“Oil seeps are underwater cracks in the Earth’s crust that release naked crude oil into the sea. As the graph below illustrates, offshore production accounts for the smallest fraction of petroleum that is leaked into North American waters.

*Natural seepage of crude oil from geologic formations below the seafloor is estimated to exceed 47,000,000 gallons in North American waters and 180,000,000 gallons globally every year.

*Natural oil seeps are responsible for over 60 percent of the petroleum entering North American waters, and over 45 percent of the petroleum entering the marine environment worldwide.

*Petroleum contamination from oil seeps in North American waters is about 60 times greater than the amount released through oil exploration and production.

http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/ocs/

[444Flyer]