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BP Suspends "Top Kill" For Second Time After Trying Two Junk Shots. Less Than 10% of Injection Fluids are Staying Inside the Leaking Pipes
As I reported
yesterday, the "Top Kill" attempt to stop the oil flow using mud had
failed, and BP would now try to use a "junk shot" to close the leaks in
the pipe using various debris.
The New York Times is now reporting
that the junk shot approach is not going well:
The
company [again] suspended pumping operations at 2:30 a.m. Friday after
two “junk shot” attempts, said the technician, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly
about the efforts."The suspension of the effort was not announced, and appeared to again
contradict statements by company and government officials that suggested
the top kill procedure was progressing Friday."
***
The technician working on the
effort said that despite the injections at various pressure levels,
engineers had been able to keep less than 10 percent of the injection
fluids inside the stack of pipes above the well. He said that was
barely an improvement on Wednesday’s results when the operation
began....
“I won’t say progress was zero, but I don’t know if we
can round up enough mud to make it work,” said the technician.
“Everyone is disappointed at this time.”
Update: It appears that BP is starting preparations for its next fix-it scheme.
As
FT's oil spill blog reports:
The
ROVs are definitely up to something:
Update: LMRP 3.28pm
BST (10.28am EDT; 9.28am CDT)A couple of TOD commenters believe
some of the recent footage shows the Lower Marine Riser Package, which
BP says it is preparing in parallel with the top kill efforts. One
points out that the camera in the screen shot below seems to say LMRP
(see text at the centre).
As BP explains
today:
In
parallel with the ongoing top kill operation, preparations have been
made for the possible deployment of the lower marine riser package
(LMRP) cap containment system.Deployment would first involve
removing the damaged riser from the top of the failed BOP to leave a
cleanly-cut pipe at the top of the BOP's LMRP. The cap, a containment
device with a sealing grommet, will be connected to a riser from the
Discoverer Enterprise drillship, 5,000 feet above on the surface, and
placed over the LMRP with the intention of capturing most of the oil
and gas flowing from the well.The LMRP cap is already deployed
alongside the BOP in readiness for potential deployment. If it is
decided to deploy this option, this would be expected to take some
three to four days.In addition to these steps, planning is
being advanced for deploying, if necessary, a second BOP on top of the
original failed BOP.
More updates:
Third
Giant Underwater Oil Plume Discovered
Rumor:
Secretary of the Navy Wants to Sink a Battleship On Top of the Oil
Spill
»
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I thought this article from Norway was interesting. Google will give you a pretty good translation on how BP started lying from the very beginning about the magnitude of the spill. I enjoy all your posts, GW!
the idea of pumping nitrogen and sum junk to freeze it up seems to be the best idea so far... seeing they had icing/crystlizing using the dome thing, wonder why they havent tried it yet.
You got 450 degree crude and gas jetting out at 2000 lbs/sq inch. That nitrogen will stay cold for about 2 seconds, baby. This whole thing is Kabuki Theater.
BP knows ONLY the relief wells will work. They have to drill 13,000 feet thru rock. The August EST is BS to begin with. Hurricanes will stop work dead for a week at a time. The "black gold" will still be spewing when Americans go to the polls in November.
How do people living in cold areas keep their pipes from freezing? They leave the water running. Which brings up the question -- why the first attempt with the dome froze. I guess Bozo Petroleum is just jinxed.
BTW Bp is looking for Compliance and Ethics people! LOL!
http:://www.bp.com/careers
Haven't you seen Terminator? Nitrogen and metal don't go that well together, just ask Arnold!
I did and he said it would make a good Govenator.
quote of the day - from the Oildrum,
Q: What exactly is spewing out of that hole?
A: Mostly lies
Does it even matter if they plug this one , when there is a much much larger plume that BP isn't telling us about.
BP are Fucking liars !
The plume is different then the flow/leak.
A plume was the flow/leak at some point.
Not that they aren't lying Fkrs.
I should have used the word fissure. The one they are trying to plug is small in comparison to what is now being discovered to be the source of those three massive oil plumes. This fissure is supposedly a few miles from the one with the cameras.
Even the government is covering this up.
is 10% a passing grade?
It is if it's the Supremes and Exxon Valdez you're talking about!
the first time i heard about grading on the curve was when i was an exchange student in the us. i quickly learned not to blow it. dictatorship of the dumb.
You're awesome GW! Thanks for keeping us here at ZH properly informed.
I second Wine! Awesome service keeping us up to date.
This will actually push prices up for BP. Oil will go up, stock will go up.
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday voted to more than quadruple a tax on the oil industry that finances a federal oil-spill trust fund, setting the stage for greater funding amid focus on an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The tax would increase to 34 cents per barrel from 8 cents currently under the measure, which was included in a broader bill to extend jobless benefits and provide temporary tax breaks. The broader bill cleared the House on Friday by 215-204. The Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund is a source of funding for oil-spill cleanups.
The U.S. Senate will take up the measure when it returns after the Memorial Day recess. Little opposition to the per-barrel tax increase suggests that the measure has a good chance of passing.
The $1.6 billion that the fund holds is estimated to be less than what will be needed to clean up a BP Plc (BP, BP.LN) spill that followed an April 20 oil-rig explosion. Though BP has indicated that it will pay all "legitimate costs" related to the spill, the disaster is focusing attention on the issue.
-By Siobhan Hughes, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6654; siobhan.hughes@dowjones.com
Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today´s most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/access/al?rnd=AbK2XIdD%2B4WTy9YbyfoE9A%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 28, 2010 16:21 ET (20:21 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc
And does anyone believe that money will be there when it is needed, or be as empty as the social security "lockbox" having been raided by the gov'mint for other purposes along the way? Just another tax, not letting a crisis go to waste.
"BP will pay all "legitimate costs""
It's still 75 mil. so for everybody who's thinking that BP will go BT, forget about it. Obama is shitting his pants that BP will redraw and let the taxpayers pay.
And remember if things get nasty the Supreme Court is always there to lend a hand to preserve Truth, Justice and the American Way... (cronyism...)
Then again the Supremes reduced the $5 billion dollar fine handed out for the Exxon Valdez spill to what... $500 Million? And I don't think they've paid that yet either... and how many years has that been?
Anyone want to chime in here?
Don't know the specifics, but Ex Vald spill fisherman got screwed, that fishery still has not recovered, herring collapsed, besides the money they lost immediately after spill....I wish some Ayn Rand supporter or libertarians would scream bloody murder about how our legal system did not pay out to those fisherman the loss they incurred directly due to Exxon and BP (BP was in charge of having emrg response in case of spill, they lied and said they had boom ready right where spill happened, instead it was 1200 miles away etc..) but govt is so corrupted, a clear loss/harm to fishermen, productive people feeding us, is not a paid claim, because SCOTUS, rules only apply to little people, rich corps that could easily afford their fines, they do not have to pay for their bad deeds, instead small fry fisherman that can't afford much loss, bear the whole burden of oil companies mistakes
Ayn Rand supporters or libertarians?
But who forced the fishes to swin into the oil spill?
Who forced the fishes to breathe an oil water mixture?
Who forced the fishers to fish into those waters?
Not BP.
This economic church is alarmed at seeing others progressing fast using good old recipes. That is why they try to ban those old good recipes.
The Japanese are still pissed at the whales for not helping them out during WWII...
Maybe....maybe not.
There's a provision in the Clean Water Act which fines $4,300 per barrel to clean up the spill.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64O75Q20100526
http://www.docudharma.com/diary/21364/clean-water-act-fines-up-to-4300barrel
READ: http://rense.com/general90/analy.htm - Any educated opinions from people in the business?
Jesus H. Christ. I had no <expletive deleted> idea that it WILL get that bad if BP can't stop it soon.
Tick tick tick tick tick.
I think I'm going to be sick . . .
Just nuke the well already.
the US took a morgage on those nukes so I don't think the banks will allow that..
LET'S DEPLOY THE CRACKEN! SOUND THE HORN!
ok, I finally laughed...... it took me all these posts because dammit, this is seriously sad.
DARN!!! Had to go out food shopping and while i watched the live feeds on and off for days, now feel empty since i missed seeing the 'junk shot'. It is like getting a message yet no happy ending.
(Humor)
Don't worry: the "money shot" is always after the junk shot.
I'm pretty sure if you suffered a junk shot you'd be weeks away from your next money shot without a handful of viagra.
+ 20 LOL
This may have been one of the junk shots.
(or it might just have been the camera unit - ROV - stirring up dust)
No... that must have been a junk shot with lighter more bouyant (and compressable) materials.
My heart skipped for a second when the big chunk that looked like a piece of the foamed casing cement Haliburton put in floated by... but then it kept floating...
It almost looked like styrofoam?
Indeed it did... my exact thoughts! (probably a tough polymer with a specific gravity closer to 1)
I think that even though the pressure is high... the flow inside the BOP is too slow to support the heavier rubber pieces or golf balls (due to much larger diameter pipes vs. the diameter of the leaks)... they could be sinking and thus not plugging... suspended in the oil column below the larger diameter casing pipes but above the lower smaller ones where the force from the flow is greater. We'll see...
Anything loose in that well will be shot out with these flow rates. I think that since the junk shot didn't work, the leak must have a larger diameter that the pipe they are pumping mud through, which I'm guessing is 4 inches. Therefore, they can't pump anything big enough to plug the hole. This is an indication that the flow rates are much bigger than the 5000 BPD that was reported.
I find it shocking that all of these techniques weren't tried a month ago. I think it's an indication that BP was terribly unprepared. If that $75 million liability cap is removed, I think it is concievable that BP could be forced to file chapter 11, because now it seems as though it will be August before the leak is capped.
This is how I see it...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoPfzuqU-Tk
Classics!
The part where the lady of the house turns on her new-fangled television set is one of my all-time favorite scenes. Talk about a money shot!
Nop, the bet is that that was pummace, a volcanic residue rock that can hold a lot of gas. That came from pretty deep from the shaft actually and it shows the ammount of pressure from the gas is still critical.
Ixnay on the ummicepay!
I think it used to be a sea mammal
- you're in denial Davey, you're a cephalopod...specifically, ManBearPod genera.
Why would they not shoot neodymium magnets into the BOP.
Dude, the magnets are in my book also.
they need those to hold their pin-up kalenders up on the boards. Got any other bright idea's?
George-
What's up with the 230 am time? What has been going on all day? Why link to a rumor about the sec of navy when the person who started the rumor has claimed on the oil drum website that it was a joke?
Just did a Google search of TOD blog with battleship and sink as the terms and did not see any reference to your claim of it being a joke. I remember seeing a note from before 12:00 p.m. today suggestiing a Naval officer thought sinking a battleship over the site might work. No reference was provided to this quote and several people thought the guy was joking based on their responses to his post.