BP Relief Well Prepares to Kill the Well?
[Guest post by DRJ]
BP’s first relief well neared total depth on or about June 27, followed by several days of electromagnetic testing to locate the original well bore and drilling to bring them into alignment for the bottom kill procedure. The process is explained in this BP video.
My guess is they are preparing to start the bottom kill procedure. If so, this may be over soon.
— DRJ
If BP runs true to form, they will screw this up as well. Then it’s NUKE TIME!!
They are seriously considering nuking the well if all else fails.
Angry Webmaster (b16fde) — 7/4/2010 @ 4:39 pmI heard on the news BS Petroleum was still saying mid-August for the relief well even though they’re supposedly ahead of schedule. Can we believe anything these people say?
JEA (0d6bde) — 7/4/2010 @ 4:40 pmThe man in the video said that in 40 attempts to “kill the well” they had been successful 40 times.
This is the 41st try. Give ’em a break and wait and see.
rab (7a9e13) — 7/4/2010 @ 4:45 pmAs I understand it, the closer they get to the original well, the slower they have to go, because they have to be more precise. So mid-August is still the most probable date.
Think of it this way–at first they only needed to get a first approximation of where the well was, then as they get closer and closer they need better approximation, until they get to the final stages where approximate is not enough, and they have to get it exactly right.
Now they have the alignment mapped, they probably have to do the actually drilling, and I can guarantee you they are going slow and careful. Do you want to be the BP engineer who has to say, Sorry, guys, we screwed up on this one, let’s go over to the second relief well.
kishnevi (2c3adb) — 7/4/2010 @ 4:53 pmSoon is a relative term, kishnevi, but it looks like a week or two instead of a month or two.
DRJ (d43dcd) — 7/4/2010 @ 5:02 pmI wonder if this will be timed such that the well is killed before all the containment can be put into place what would provide an incontestably accurate rate of flow.
happyfeet (19c1da) — 7/4/2010 @ 5:12 pmhere is a graphic I saw the other day on the internet… in this relief well there are perforations involved… BP guy doesn’t talk about that
happyfeet (19c1da) — 7/4/2010 @ 5:26 pmhere is a guardian article
here is something new:
happyfeet (19c1da) — 7/4/2010 @ 5:45 pmHe seems a sensible fellow, even if he talked to the Guardian:http://pipl.com/search/?FirstName=Julius&LastName=Langlinais&City=&State=&Country=&CategoryID=2&Interface=40
ian cormac (93d17d) — 7/4/2010 @ 6:02 pmThe technology here is astonishing. There are incredibly difficult things being done and criticized by people who wouldn’t have the first idea how to proceed. I include Obama and team in that group.
I have been packing today and had the History Channel on all day in some July 4 special on American history. The leftist bias is amazing. One small example is the bit about General Custer in which they said Custer charged 7,000 Sioux with 700 soldiers.
He did not charge anyone and the Custer Battlefield National Monument, which I have visited several times, shows where his men were stationed in a defensive perimeter. Their bodies were found there. I guess it makes the Indians look better to say he charged them instead of the way it happened.
Amazing PC distortion and even lies.
Mike K (82f374) — 7/4/2010 @ 6:13 pmWere they relying on the Philbrick book, Mike, as their source for that
ian cormac (93d17d) — 7/4/2010 @ 6:26 pmMike K, I agree that the people working day and night to stop this disaster are heroic and are being demonized by people not up to their devotion or skill.
Still, I’m going to criticize whoever in the hell decided to leave us guessing. DRJ has to speculate as to what’s going on. These are our shores and our friends being devastated. BP owes us a complete accounting for their efforts, even those which fail or might fail. They need to be completely forthright instead of ‘surprising us’ whenever they manage to stop the leak.
Dustin (b54cdc) — 7/4/2010 @ 9:24 pmGiven the way this has gone, my bet is on TWO leaks.
Kevin Murphy (5ae73e) — 7/5/2010 @ 12:34 amI keep thinking about “President” Morgan Freeman’s ever-less-hopeful speeches about the onrushing asteroid in “Deep Impact.”
Kevin Murphy (5ae73e) — 7/5/2010 @ 12:37 amIt’s obvious from several comments above that Obama’s demonization campaign, and the rabid piling on by the MSM, have pretty well poisoned public opinion beyond any rational consideration of BP’s actions.
None of these politico-media blowhards have any competence whatever in judging, or supervising, or operating a technical job such as BP is doing to intercept and cap the blown-out well. So what’s their alternative? MSNBC proposes nuking it. Staggering stupidity, but nothing constructive.
Meanwhile, BP is at depth and within 55 feet of intersection. There’s cause for optimism that the ‘late-August’ estimate for the bottom kill will be substantially beaten. Their driller has successfully drilled 40 interception wells in 2009, and appears to be closing in on number 41.
My money is on the technically capable, and against the corrosively and politically glib.
Insufficiently Sensitive (8906ed) — 7/5/2010 @ 12:53 pm#15 Insufficiently Sensitive:
You keep playing like that, and you’re going to find it hard to find anyone to cover your bets.
EW1(SG) (edc268) — 7/5/2010 @ 1:11 pmI bet Obama puts down his golf clibs long enough to go to the Gulf to celebrate “his plan coming together.”
Neo (7830e6) — 7/5/2010 @ 1:44 pm“My money is on the technically capable, and against the corrosively and politically glib.”
Ya know, good for the people at BP working hard who didn’t do anything wrong. It’s not their fault that some idiot who happens to work at the same company made a terrible call, which I’m afraid is quite in line with that company’s trend of decision making in my opinion.
I don’t know why this has to be political class versus BP leadership. They are both at fault. That doesn’t mean some of the people taking orders from Obama or BP aren’t heroic, but BP shouldn’t be permitted to drill in our waters again, in my opinion.
Dustin (b54cdc) — 7/5/2010 @ 1:51 pmDustin
accidents do happen, even big one’s sometimes when charting new territory, crap happens
some call it progress
some progressives call it evil
EricPWJohnson (cedf1d) — 7/5/2010 @ 2:16 pm“BP shouldn’t be permitted to drill in our waters again, in my opinion.”
Dustin – Right. Because we just know for certain that the evil people making the drilling decisions on that rig when weighing the risks of of one technique or procedure against a blowout that could cost the company tens of billions of dollars in damages and tarnish its reputation for decades, decided to go full ret*rd and ignore the blowout risk. That’s just how corporations roll on those decisions.
daleyrocks (1d0d98) — 7/5/2010 @ 2:29 pmGiven the way this has gone, my bet is on TWO leaks.
Just what I would expect from a Murphy
red murphy (c92c45) — 7/5/2010 @ 5:51 pmCan Murphy guess why they’re intersecting the bores 17,000 feet down? No? Could it just be that a column of drilling mud of that height is sufficient to counter the pressure from below, which BP knows the magnitude of?
An explanation of why there should be two leaks would be appropriate.
Insufficiently Sensitive (8906ed) — 7/5/2010 @ 6:03 pm