Patterico's Pontifications

5/26/2010

BP Top Kill Begins

Filed under: Environment — DRJ @ 11:57 am



[Guest post by DRJ]

BP has started the Top Kill process. You can watch a live feed here.

— DRJ

31 Responses to “BP Top Kill Begins”

  1. Someone needs to ‘splain to me why a company drills an oil well and then caps it when it obviously able to produce marketable amounts of oil and gas.

    PCD (b3210f)

  2. The enviro people complaining about the clean-up process made me chuckle.

    JD (2855f9)

  3. PCD…they’re closing it off since they, under current technology, do not seem to be able to get it under control. They’ll just drill another one, which is what they were going to do anyway after capping this one. It was the capping process that went awry.

    AD - RtR/OS! (39b1d4)

  4. So they are going to “plug the damn hole.”

    You see? I told you meanies. Obama’s always right about everything. And so assertive and manly, too. Ooooh!

    *fans self, faints*

    yet another rally-audience member (196ed7)

  5. can i ask a dumb question.

    Okay, so why exactly did it take them this long to do this? what was the hold up? logistical getting the stuff to the scene? regulatory? no one frickin thought of it? What?

    bp failed disater prep 101… step one is to have a plan in case something goes wrong. Best i can tell, the failed step one.

    A.W. (e7d72e)

  6. They first tried IMO all of the alternatives that would leave them with a well that could be used for production in the future.

    This action “kills” the well!
    It’s like capping, and walking away from, a “dry hole”. Everything they spent to drill this hole is just a write-off.

    AD - RtR/OS! (39b1d4)

  7. And they were not, originally, abandoning a producing well. They were removing the drilling platform, to be replaced later by a production platform. The drilling platform was leased (that’s where Transocean comes in) and then BP would operate the successfully drilled well. It was in this process of temporarily turning off the oil that the accident happened. This new process is not the one most likely to work. It’s simply the next one to be tried. And it is not guaranteed either. It’s not only that, if it works, that it will permanently shut down the well. This attempt was also delayed because if it does NOT work it may cause further damage to the well head that INCREASES the flow of oil. Obviously, nobody wants to try that as their first option.

    Gesundheit (cfa313)

  8. if this w*rks, can we get them to use the same process on Washington DC?

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  9. if this w*rks, can we get them to use the same process on Washington DC?

    Comment by redc1c4 — 5/26/2010 @ 12:57 pm

    There doesn’t seem to be enough of anything that will plug those *-holes.

    PatriotRider (8d9a6f)

  10. It depends on whether or not you want them to survive.

    AD - RtR/OS! (39b1d4)

  11. Market down again today, closing at 9974!
    Another stirring appraisal of the DC Follies.

    AD - RtR/OS! (39b1d4)

  12. yup. It’s definitely tapering off.

    happyfeet (71f55e)

  13. that link isn’t working for me anymore but here it’s working.. it’s oddly calming to watch the billowing billows

    happyfeet (c8caab)

  14. Elouise brings logic to bear on the problem:

    Elouise Hopson is in town from north Louisiana.

    Does she think “top kill” will work?

    She said, “I think it will. My son just left, he works in Brazil. He’s worked for oilfields for thirty-something years. My husband has been there for fifty years, so I think it will work.”

    I feel better.

    happyfeet (c8caab)

  15. oh… it must be a firefox thing… DRJ’s link works fine in IE

    happyfeet (c8caab)

  16. Drudge has the Wall Street Journal article, 5/27/2010, by Miguel Bustillo.

    “Big Spat on Rig Preceded Explosion”

    KENNER, La.—More details emerged Wednesday about a disagreement between employees of rig operator Transocean Ltd. and oil giant BP PLC over how to begin shutting down the well just hours before it exploded in the Gulf of Mexico last month.

    Testimony on Wednesday about the disagreement, in a hearing held by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Minerals Management Service, which jointly regulate offshore drilling, was likely to bring increased scrutiny to the decisions BP made aboard the rig the day of the explosion, April 20.

    There was also likely to be more focus on whether Transocean should have done more to ensure proper procedures were carried out.

    Douglas H. Brown, Transocean’s chief mechanic on the Deepwater Horizon rig, said key representatives from both companies had a “skirmish” during an 11 a.m. meeting on April 20. Less than 11 hours later, the well had a blowout, an uncontrolled release of oil and gas, killing 11 workers.

    Mr. Brown said Transocean’s crew leaders—including the rig operator’s top manager, Jimmy W. Harrell—strongly objected to a decision by BP’s top representative, or “company man,” over how to start removing heavy drilling fluid and replacing it with lighter seawater from a riser pipe connected to the well head. Such pipes act as conduits between the rig and the wellhead at the ocean floor, and carry drilling fluid in and out of the well…

    ropelight (9cdba2)

  17. ummm…

    did anyone notice that the LAT’s graphic is flat wrong?

    happyfeet (c8caab)

  18. compare that with BP’s explanation

    the mud is not meant to clog the BOP thingy… it has to… MIT had a cool phrase brb…

    happyfeet (c8caab)

  19. I can’t find it now but what the mud does it said was make a “hydrostatic head” in the well

    happyfeet (c8caab)

  20. oh. I see. The mud is supposed to back up into the BOP thingy. The graphic just skipped some stuff. That’s not good cause that means it’s not really working like in the BP movie.

    happyfeet (c8caab)

  21. As Obama put it himself during a fundraiser on his California trip: “Nobody is more upset than me, because ultimately, like any president, when this happens on your watch, then every day you are thinking, ‘How does this get solved?” In a separate money-raiser for Democrats the same night, Obama spoke more broadly about the public perception perils that come with his job: “People expect you to solve problems. And when things go wrong, they’re definitely going to blame you.”*

    His dirty socialists Associated Press whores are going to be sore in the morning.

    happyfeet (c8caab)

  22. OMG reading the Associated Press it’s just like Katrina all over again… remember how many times we heard this?

    The difficult reality for the public to accept is there is only so much the government can do.

    happyfeet (c8caab)

  23. his journalist wenches include this without elaboration… I think cause of they know the little president man was off-message and babbling senselessly…

    He also raised questions about the viability of deepwater drilling, citing the increased risks and costs of going after oil in a nation that long has come to rely upon it.

    happyfeet (c8caab)

  24. jobs!

    happyfeet (c8caab)

  25. If the Top Kill shuts down the blow-out, is it permissible to ask why it wasn’t attempted sometime back in April, before millions and millions of barrels of crude spewed into the Gulf?

    ropelight (9df278)

  26. Yes.

    MikeHu (255b30)

  27. Comment by ropelight — 5/27/2010 @ 9:11 am

    See #6 above.

    AD - RtR/OS! (fce032)

  28. Obowman suspends all future off-shore drilling – Oil futures close up 4.6%!
    At the same time, M3 has been declining for six-months or so, indicating a coming bout of deflation.
    The interchange of the two cannot be a good thing.

    AD - RtR/OS! (fce032)

  29. Roger that, AD. It’s as obvious as feathers on the cat’s face after the canary goes missing.

    ropelight (9df278)

  30. Take note, the top kill process began early Wednesday afternoon, didn’t go well, and was halted at 11pm Wednesday night.

    In PR performances on TV by BP, the Coast Guard, and President Obama on Thursday neglected to inform us the top kill wasn’t on-track as we were led to believe.

    ropelight (667d14)

  31. unbelievable

    happyfeet (c8caab)


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