BP Using 30 Year-Old Playbook in Responding to Oil Spill?

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Preface for my conservative readers:
Yes, I know ... Maddow is very liberal. But her claims are either true or they are
not true. Let's focus on her claims. If anyone can refute them, let me know, and I'll post a
retraction.

Rachel Maddow
claims
that a top kill type maneuver - pumping in cement and saltwater - was
tried during the giant 1979 Ixtoc oil
spill, but didn't work.

Maddow also says:

• The
  precursor to the same company operating the Deepwater Horizon drilling
  well - Transocean - operated the Ixtoc rig

• The cause of
  both oil spills was the same: a malfunctioning blowout preventer

• The
  location of the spill was the same: the Gulf

• The
  sizes of both spills were massive

• A "top hat" operation
  was attempted unsuccessfully. During the Ixtoc spill, it was named
  "Operation Sombrero"

• Chemical dispersants derived from
  kerosene were used to try to hide the extent of both spills

• A
  "junk shot" was tried in 1979, using steel balls (it didn't work)

Maddow
says that nothing worked to
stop the Ixtoc spill until the relief wells were completed ... 10 months
later.

In other words, the technology for drilling deeper has
progressed, but the technology for stopping oil gushers hasn't really
improved one bit, because all of the funding has gone into drilling
deeper, and none of the funding has gone into increasing safety.

Comments

[Rebel]

I saw Bill Nye the Science Guy on the news yesterday explaining that the top kill was proven technology and hadworked. Then he launched into a bunch of technobabble explaining how it had worked. This guy is the biggest Dufus I have every seen, and don't know why they put him on TV. I don't think I have ever seen him on as a commentator that he was not exactly wrong.

[JohnKing]

Bill Nye is a shill for global warming and TPTB. A fucking creep.

[Rebel]

Agreed. Bugs me how MSM presents him as an expert.

[CrazyCooter]

Oh, and some perspective on the size of the spill ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_spill

Cooter

[WaterWings]

Riser Insertion Tube Tool Estimate

Both estimates from the Mass Balance Team and the Plume Modeling Team were reality-checked with a basic calculation of the lower limit of possible oil that is spilling.  The lower limit was calculated based on the amount of oil collected by the Riser Insertion Tube Tool (RITT), plus the estimate of how much oil is escaping the RITT, and how much oil is leaking from the kink in the riser.

On May 25, 2010, at approximately 17:30 CDT, the RITT logged oil collection at a rate of 8,000 barrels of oil per day, as measured by a meter whose calibration was verified by a third-party.  Based on observations of the riser, the team estimated that at least 10% of the flow was not being captured by the riser at the time oil collection was logged, increasing the estimate of total flow to 8,800 barrels of oil per day.  Factoring in the flow from the kink in the riser, the RITTI Team calculated that the lower bound estimate of the total oil flow is at least 11,000 barrels of oil per day, depending on whether the flow through the kink is primarily gas or oil.  The lower bound estimate calculated by the RITT Team is more than twice the amount of the earlier flux estimate of 5,000 barrels of oil per day and is independent of any calculations or model assumptions made by either team above.

Below are the resources surged to date to mitigate the impacts of the spill:

• Approximately 1,300 vessels are responding on site, including skimmers, tugs, barges, and recovery vessels to assist in containment and cleanup efforts—in addition to dozens of aircraft, remotely operated vehicles, and multiple mobile offshore drilling units.
• More than 1.85 million feet of containment boom and 1.25 million feet of sorbent boom have been deployed to contain the spill—and approximately 300,000 feet of containment boom and 1 million feet of sorbent boom are available.
• Approximately 11 million gallons of an oil-water mix have been recovered.  [Exxon Valdez = 10.8 million US gallons; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_Valdez_oil_spill]
• Approximately 840,000 gallons of total dispersant have been deployed—700,000 on the surface and 140,000 subsea. More than 380,000 gallons are available.

http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/doc/2931/569235/

[WaterWings]

11,000 barrels * 38 = 418,000 (Exxon Valdez = ~250,000)

Minimum estimated flow from one leak is approaching two EVs.

---

Oh, and speaking of all things hilarious, where's Goredo?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3399/4647925480_cf0a0bc941.jpg

[CrazyCooter]

This has been a dog and pony show from the begining folks. The dual relief wells have been the only workable solution from the get-go. They wont take ten months to complete like the spill mentioned as I believe one is already close to completion.

My concern is that there isnt enough riser/pipe left to reach hydrostatic pressure with mud. That is to say the drilling column used to be 5k feet of water + 18k feet of earths crust and they maintained hydrostatic pressure with 16 pounds per gallon mud. Now its just 18k feet of earths crust so the mud has to be heavier by roughly 20% or about 19 pounds per gallon. I have no knowledge of the actual pressures actually involved, so who can say (except BP).

I am not a petro engy, just read a lot and try to stick to fundamentals.

The Pemex spill from 79/80 did not destroy the gulf. Yes its a disaster. Yes it will screw up a lot of stuff. Yes the coast is going to take a huge economic hit. Yes the fallout will last for a decade or more.

The only way this becomes what everyone fears is if the dual relief well doesnt get it to hydrostatic pressure. If that happens ... well ... lets not go there ...

Cooter

[earnyermoney]

George,

Not sure I can refute her claims but I'm skeptical none the less. I think I'll pose this question to contributors on "TheOilDrum" blog. http://www.theoildrum.com. Outstanding coverage of the spill.

[Noah Vail]

I'd like to know what happened to all the Petro engineers that use to inhabit The Oil Drum up to about a year ago, but have all fled. Now its full of mostly amateurs flouting their extreme knowledge.

[Noah Vail]

Funny how quickly all GW's doomsday reports disappear.

[WaterWings]

Go away, kettle.

Add something instead of filling up space. Put some boots on for us and go take some photos and tell us what's going on like this guy:

I can understand keeping people off of a beach that is in the process of being cleaned, because surely civilians would get in the way of workers. But where we were walking, that was not the case. No one was cleaning the beach, no one was laying out oil boom, no one was doing anything but chasing people off of an otherwise dead or dying beach. I believe that the citizens of this county not only have the right to be able to see what is happening for themselves, they need to see this for themselves. I guess the police disagree however, because everywhere we drove today seemed to end at a police manned road block.

Things are getting so bad here that this bar was broken into this week, most likely because it is one of the few businesses still making money on the island.

Locals see the game wardens as one of there biggest enemies now going as far as to call them A-holes. Some fishermen are continuing to fish in closed areas so that they can feed themselves, taking the catch and running scared of being confronted by officials.

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/51106

[Sudden Debt]

Yeah but in 1979 they didn't have the Titanium Centered Golf Balls or TCGB's to use for a junkshot!

[Gully Foyle]

Sudden Debt

Are you claiming they should clone a Giant Tiger Woods and have him put the hole closed?

Dude you rock!

[A Nanny Moose]

And here we thought his bimbos were his 19th hole

[Crab Cake]

Fore!

[agrotera]

R Maddow, soothsayer?

Lord have mercy!!!

[Hephasteus]

Posted this in the other thread but this thing just got much much much more out of control.

It's about 3 am. This thing just went from bad to worse to a NIGHTMARE.

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/50368/

This has collapsed an is currently spewing out oil like a volcano. The gulf is dead.

[Rebel]

If Houston refiners start refining gasoline from water right out of he gulf, will they have to pay royalty to BP?

[Miss American]

Why does everyone keep saying that the blowout preventer failed?  I've heard from 2 different people who were on the rig that weeks before the explosion pieces of rubber from the inside of it were coming up.  When reported to the higher ups it was poo pooed and "no problem, no big deal".  The fellow on '60 Minutes' said that duing some procedure someone hit a 'joystick' by mistake which pulled the drill mechanism up into the preventer crushing the rubber insides.  Human error, compounded by BP (Beyond Prosecution) pressure to get the thing done.  Supposedly the preventer passed a test after the 'accident' damaged it.

[doublethink]

Oy. Don't worry, folks...Si Se Puede!

[Noah Vail]

I hope you've already dug the hole you're about to crawl into as the end of the world nears. This blog is being over-run with TROLLS.

[AnAnonymous]

If my mythology is right, and it is right, trolls are adapted at life in caverns, earth holes and stuff.

They start miles ahead you in conclusion.

The whole end of the world is just the result of a conspiration by trolls to draw you on their favoured terrain. Dont fall for it. Keep them in the light.

[Hephasteus]

You are definitely a dwarf among mythologists.

[Merlin12]

And there is the particular troll who lived under a bridge, and ran out and gave every passerby a piece of his mind.  Until one morning he found that he didn't have any left.  This is apparently the troll population that is infesting ZH.

[Gully Foyle]

Merlin12

One mans troll is another mans genius. Perspective is the key to life.

[Gully Foyle]

AnAnonymous

Um, trolls live under bridges just ask any Billy goat.

[AnAnonymous]

Funny. Nothing sure in the stuff. Yet disaster tune.

Even if it was the case, the Gulf would not be dead. A lot of damage to be done for sure but no, the Gulf would not be dead.

Funny how people like to dilute a real disaster into an orgamiscly huge version of it.

Climate change: not to worsen the daily of thousand of millions of people around the world but to destroy entire humanity.

Gulf spill: not to impact deeply the Gulf but to destroy it entirely.

Never think big when you can think bigger.

[Crab Cake]

Well, there is a HUGE deadzone at the mouth of the Mississippi...

That's not the whole Gulf of Mexico, and it doesn't have anything to do with the deep sea gusher, but it's still a good amount of death in the Gulf.  FWIW

[Broken_Trades]

Coles:  They tried all this before and it didnt work. This is NOT NEWS.  Why do you think they are drilling 2 relief wells?  Because thats the only sure fire tried and true method of getting a well under control.

If another oil tanker sunk tomorrow, are you going to stop sailing oil tankers around?... No.

Rachel Maddow claims that a top kill type maneuver - pumping in cement and saltwater - was tried during the giant 1979 Ixtoc oil spill, but didn't work.

It didnt work - A relief well is what worked, as with 99% of all uncontrolled blow outs everywhere else in the world.

Maddow also says:

• The precursor to the same company operating the Deepwater Horizon drilling well - Transocean - operated the Ixtoc rig
  Transocean buys smaller companies - Surprise they have hundreds of rigs, blowouts happen to drilling contractors/oil companies all over the world.  There is NO CONNECTION here.  I've worked offshore on transocean rigs, and the safety procedures are suffocating.  There is no connection here.

• The cause of both oil spills was the same: a malfunctioning blowout preventer
  Equipment fails... And?  Ok this is the only real point worth talking about... Perhaps there should be multiple BOPs or other failsafes.  BOPs are much more reliable today then they were in the 70s...

• The location of the spill was the same: the Gulf
  Coincidence.

• The sizes of both spills were massive
  Oil be crazy...

• A "top hat" operation was attempted unsuccessfully. During the Ixtoc spill, it was named "Operation Sombrero"
  It happened in mexico, this seems pretty logical.

• Chemical dispersants derived from kerosene were used to try to hide the extent of both spills
  Did it help?  Yes?  Okk so whats the Fn problem here?

• A "junk shot" was tried in 1979, using steel balls (it didn't work)
  This doesn't work in 90% of cases.  Again the only tried and true method is a relief well.  Of course the oil company has to try the stupid stuff with little chance of success.  They have to TRY get it?  They have to do something while they are waiting on the relief wells to be drilled.  Thats why BP immediately started drilling 2 relief wells - They know thats the best and most likely only chance of killing the well.  Again, this is not news - This is the way it is, for every well, everywhere in the world.

Maddow says that nothing worked to stop the Ixtoc spill until the relief wells were completed ... 10 months later.

^^ This.  Again, let reiterate the point that a relief well IS THE ONLY TRIED AND TRUE METHOD TO KILL A BLOWOUT.

[Hephasteus]

Why are they drilling 2 relief wells now. Why isn't it standard procedure that if you find a huge cavern of oil under a mile of water you have to build 2 well platforms so that if one of them blows out you can use the other to keep pressure off it till you get it fixed.

[MilleniumJane]

This spill may now have reached twice the size of the Exxon Valdez.  The spill of the Exxon Valdez may have been underreported so the fines would be reduced for the oil company.  Oil still bubbles up from the affected beaches in Alaska 20-some-odd years later and the lives of the families who live in the area were turned upside down.  Disaster?  Naaahhhh.....

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?sid=acxMTPDalkmk&pid=20601087

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/03/exxon-valdez-victims-give_n_560624.html

[Hephasteus]

Look it's simple. The spill in 1979 involved a well under 200 foot of water. A 200 ft water column will bring some serious pressure. The water seeps into the well and compresses the oil and blasts it out. This one is a mile under water. This is a shook up coke can that can't be tapped. By the time they relief drill it. It will result in a spill 10 maybe 20 times worse than exxon valdez.

I'm not being overly dramatic. The gulf is DEAD. Because 9 months on a small leak works under 200 ft of water. With a mile high water column pressure blasting oil out. This thing will be blown dry by then. If they don't use chemical dispersant they yank the light layer out of the water and all the plankton die and all the gill breathers die. If they use chemical dispersant and a few plankton live the fish swimming below get the oil passed through thier gills into the lungs and they die.

Now go chug a couple quarts of oil put on your shoes and imagine "migrating" to someplace safe. You're not going to make it.