Posted on 08/04/2010 9:13:48 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
This is a second copy of this thread. The previous copy can be found at http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6810.
Update Wednesday Morning: BP announced that the well had reached a static condition, a 'significant milestone', and it was able to stop pumping mud into the well.
BP announced today that the MC252 well appears to have reached a static condition -- a significant milestone. The well pressure is now being controlled by the hydrostatic pressure of the drilling mud, which is the desired outcome of the static kill procedure carried out yesterday (US Central time).
Pumping of heavy drilling mud into the well from vessels on the surface began at 1500 CDT (2100 BST) on August 3, 2010 and was stopped after about eight hours of pumping. The well is now being monitored, per the agreed procedure, to ensure it remains static. Further pumping of mud may or may not be required depending on results observed during monitoring.
The Washington Post reports that everything is not over yet. A couple of comments:
"You want to make sure it's really dead, dead, dead. Don't want anything to rise out of the grave," Energy Secretary Steven Chu told The Washington Post.
"We've pretty much made this well not a threat, but we need to finish this from the bottom," Allen told WWL-TV.
Heading Out's original post below the fold.
(Excerpt) Read more at theoildrum.com ...
That's what I thought too.
Prior to the the blowout this well was a “Spindletop”
gusher. Will BP be able to get this oil? Since
their rig was destroyed, will they abandon it, or
make another attempt to get the millions of barrels
down there? Just Curious.
The lawsuit will be interesting as a much stronger case can be made against the Federal government and its minions flapping its collective jaws about what a calamity this was going to be for the coastal states and how THAT more than anything drove down St Joe’s land worth.
Then nothing.
The US laws state that any well under water that suffers a blowout, must be cemented and abandoned. So the Macondo 252 wont be a production well. Possible that they could drill some new wells in the future or convert the Relief Wells. That oil is actually our oil. We own it and the US government leases the rights. We (the US government) gets royalty payments on the oil produced. And unfortunately the US government blows those royalty payments before we ever see any of it. Now former governor Palin up in Alaska actually was sending her citizens checks for their produced oil royalties.
I like electric work, because it rarely leaks, and you can tell easily when it does. I don’t like plumbing because it always leaks for no reason.
I’m scared to death to work on any gas lines, because I could blow something up.
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