spill and dumb ole country boy

[torpedoman]

 not an engineer or driller, pretty fair mechanic but it seems to me that they know the outside diameter of the leaking pipe and any decent machine shop should be able to make a slip collar with a couple of O ring grooves that would slide over it and give a decent seal this hooked to pipe or drill rod could direct the flow to the surface were it could be placed in a tanker and pumped into other tankers for transport to storage or refineries. why not? maybe this much oil available would drive the price down? Maybe Washington needs a huge crisis to take our minds off everything else they are screwing up? Just seems a bit odd that this is allowed to continue when the fix seems a bit simple except the fix will not shut off the oil so it can be delivered in a controlled manner.

[magooch]

I don't think politics has anything to do with the actual fix for the leak.  Where the leak is and the fact that people can't work at that depth and the condition of the apparatus complicates things a bit.  It's possible that the eventual fix will be something simple, or not, but it might be something that will make future leaks easier to deal with.

[Matt]

Well I see no reason the bell method would not work...

Huge Very heavy bell with pipe out the top.... Drop it on the bottom over the leak and route all oil to the surface for collection... Valve to shut it off also..


Plain and simple truth... They dont want to stop it... need more oil in the gulf for the hurricanes to spread all over the south to create a huge disaster for the administration and other bureaucrats to use as a power grab....

Bet the law suits against BP are thrown out also.... Haven't been able to verify yet but have heard that the Big O has quite a bit of stock in BP.

Matt

[briarpatch]

My thoughts are the same as Matts on this one.
Seemed kind of odd, bozo announces he is for drilling off shore (when we know thats a lie) and a few days later. Thar she blows.
Now none will want it. It will be billed as environmentally unsafe.
Problem solved for the big men. Sheep lose again. 

[243shooter]

it seems to me that if they just dumped enough boulders and gravel and whatever on top it would eventually plug up

[williamlayton]

The pressures and low temps. at this depth are the big problems.
Simple slip sleeveing at more shallow depts work fine.
The material used in this process will not work at the temps. and depth pressure recorded here.
This is not my assessment. this comes from a group of inspectors/engineers I am friends with---they do this kind of work for a living.
There are a number of prospects that are worth trying but they cannot be utilized all at one time.
The slant drilling procedure the are doing from the first is the most promising--and slowest.
Pumping mud in will help slow the leak--but the pressures are fighting this.
They will work it out--the well will be put in production and the cleaup will take place.
Blessings

[Cecil]

Bp's press confrence   http://bp.concerts.com/gom/kentwells_update24052010.htm

[mechanic]

I work with hydraulics on a daily basis, and have only a rudimentary idea of the pressures they are working with at this depth.  I read that the oil is coming out of the pipe at 30,000 psi.  A ultra high pressure situation on a forklift, or tractor hydraulics is 3,000 psi.  Normal hydraulic working conditions are 1800 or so psi.  I cannot get a grip mentally on what it will take to plug a leak at 30,000.

This is an entire new scenario to most of us who work in the "normal" world of pressures.

They have tried the "dome", and have tried plugging the shaft with drilling mud and concrete.  What next?  The best people to know are those that work with this on a daily basis, namely BP.  I'm of the opinion that if this could be plugged easily, BP would have done so quickly, as they have nothing to lose and everything to gain by this leak stopping as quickly as possible.

The financial ramifications are astounding long term.  If this continues, it will most likely end BP.