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Relief Wells Delayed ... New Tests Show "Gap" in Oil "Well Column" Causing Loss of Pressure ... Does the Government Have ANY IDEA What It's Doing?
An oil and gas industry veteran with 30 years experience who goes by the alias Fishgrease gave a pretty good recap of BP and the government's record of failure in capping the oil well:
1. BP does a superhuman job of creating conditions favorable to loss of
control of what is very possibly the largest well in the history ot the
Gulf of Mexico. Result: Blowout. FAIL
2. For more than a day, BP insists there is no leakage. Result: Wrong. FAIL
3. BP admits that well is leaking. Says leak is 1000 BOPD. Result: Wrong. FAIL
4. NOAA, USCG and independent groups say the leak sure looks more like
5000 BOPD. BP says... DEAL! It's 5000 BOPD! How silly of us! Result:
Wrong. FAIL
Round about here, BP
succumbs to pressure from ... Congress and other groups and begins to
release video feeds of that is happening under a mile of Gulf water, at
the damaged well.
5. BP builds a huge metal barn to lower over one of the leaks. Result: G@*!@^$ thing clogs with hydrate ice within seconds. FAIL
6. BP installs Insertion Tube Technology. Result: Captures a very small and day-by-day-smaller portion of the leak. FAIL
7. BP tries Diamond Wire Saw Technology to cut the damaged riser off the
top of the BOP, leaving a clean even surface to seat a cap. Result:
Wire gets stuck. FAIL
8. BP
tries Crunchy... a huge hydraulic Jaws-of-Death to snip the riser.
Result: Jagged, bent, uneven surface upon which nothing will seal. FAIL
9. BP lowers cap #4. Steam Punk fans rejoice! Result: This cap is capturing only a minor fraction of the leak. FAIL
10. BP is ordered to increase containment capacity by the USCG. Says it
will. Doesn't. Starts piping a portion of the leak to the Q4000 where
it is all burned, unmeasured. Result: They're capturing or burning an
estimated 50% of the leak, when they were ordered to catch it ALL. FAIL
11. BP is again ordered to increase capture capacity via sternly-worded
letter. Finally installs another processing boat. Result: Still not
getting much more than 50% of the leak. Makes excuse that there's not
enough room in the fucking Gulf of Mexico to park another boat. FAIL
12. BP installs "Capping Stack Technology" in order to more effectively
capture leak. Result: Vented riser immediately freezes off. This is the
beginning of the end of capture. FAIL
13. BP comes up with "Integrity Test Technology" which completely shuts in
the well to test its integrity. Result: Works... immediately starts
leaking... but does stop the leak. BP keeps moving goal line for
integrity downward from 9000 psi to 8000 psi to 7500 psi to whatever
the hell pressure they're seeing that day....
14. ... Well remains shut in. Leaks are nominal but increasing....
15. BP comes up with "Static Kill Technology" says it can kill well...
Along
about here, BP quits releasing data. Video feeds start blacking out
and "Rogue ROVs" appear... we can't see the feeds of those. They're
assigned to monitor the BOP leaks and anything else BP doesn't want us
to see.
16. "Magic Cement Technology!" BP
convinces Government to put the question of total capture and
measurement out of the question. All work on containment stops cold. BP
pushes a shitload of mud and cement into well. Result: Even though
there's no way on God's Green Earth that they could know where the
cement goes, they say they successfully cemented the casing... just the
casing... not the annulus. News Media interprets this as a complete
plugging of the well and questions whether the relief wells are even
needed....
But the well is still
leaking, now out of a very energetic leak on the bottom flange seal on
the FelxJoint. There is still pressure on the BOP because you can't
have leaks without pressure. Plugged wells don't LEAK!
17. BP says they're going to get some pressure readings off the BOP after
venting to see if they can establish flow up the annulus... or
something. No one can figure out what the hell they're talking about
here and they don't elaborate beyond Thad Allen blubbering a bunch of
stuff NO ONE understands....
They freeze off their chokes atop the Capping Stack by flowing
hydrocarbons through them with a very large pressure drop. ALL feeds
showing anything that is going on are blacked out. After promising to
release data, BP and Thad Allen.... don't....
Bob Cavnar continues the timeline, bringing us up to date:
Things
keep getting curiouser and curiouser with the Well that Won't Die. In
his presser this morning, Adm Allen announced that they are still
trying to decide what to do about the relief well, the weak components
on the old BOP, and how they're going to approach the relief well,
which is still just sitting there, a tantilizing 3 1/2 feet from the
blowout wellbore. Dithering seems a strong word, but one I'll
now use. You'll recall that right after BP started the surprise "well
integrity test" back in July, they announced the surprise "static
kill", characterizing it as low pressure, low risk, and an effort to
"stabilize" the well. They pumped that procedure on August 3rd, and,
declaring the well "static", then pumped 500 barrels of cement
announcing that the entire job went right down the casing and out into
the formation. That was 11 days ago.<paragraph break ... sorry, technical difficulties>Since, BP and Adm Allen raised the ominous possibility
that there was something mysterious going on in the annulus, the space
between the production casing and the intermediate casing. Adm Allen
has gone on and on about 1,000 barrels of oil in the annulus, "near
ambient" pressure testing, rising pressure, falling pressure, holding
pressure, and bleeding pressure, to the bewilderment of everyone,
including me. Kent Wells, the star of the BP "Technical" McBriefing's,
where no technical data is provided, and only few questions are taken
(notice I didn't say answered), has been AWOL since his last appearance 6
days ago. The purpose of the "new ambient" pressure test is still
unclear, but, after being hounded for over a week by the DailyKos Gulf Watchers,
the Admiral compelled BP to release the BOP pressure readings, but BP
left out basic information like starting point, whether the well is
shut in at the surface or seafloor, the fluid in the riser, etc, so the
data is pretty much useless, like most other information that's been
disclosed.<paragraph break>Today, the Admiral admitted that
there were three components in the the BOP stack that is of concern; we
know which ones those are, since we've been talking about them for over a month.
The weak components are the flex joint, right on top of the old stack,
the riser adapter, and what they call the transition spool are all
rated below the other components in the stack, between 5,000 psi to
6,000 psi maximum working pressure. In each of these procedures that
BP has undertaken, the top kill, the well integrity test, the
injectivity tests, and static kill, the pressures that BP announced
actually exceeded the rated pressures of at least one of those
components. After performing all of these machinations, they are now
suddenly concerned about pressure on the BOP, and are actually talking
about changing out the entire stack before completing the bottom kill.
What?<paragraph break>All of this delay and dithering is
confusing, at best. Pulling the stack at this point is even more
concerning, especially with drill pipe and God know what all inside,
including the casing hanger. Had they followed the original plan of
set the capping stack, hooking up the risers that were supposed to be
completed in mid-July, and producing the well to the surface while they
were killing it from below, all of this new discussion would be moot.
This static kill, where they really have no idea where the cement and mud went, has only complicated matters, created more uncertainty, and absolutely more delay.
In addition, Admiral Allen said today that new tests show “gap” in “well column” causing loss of pressure:
Does the government have any idea what it's doing? Does BP?
»
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There comes a point when you have to abandon reason and logic in order to maintain the believability of the official story. You've done that when you claim that there isn't oil on the surface, therefore there isn't any oil left in the GOM (if that indeed was what you were implying). You have to ignore the properties of the Corexit that cause the oil to remain under the surface. Obviously you're trying to lead CD into some kind of flimsy logical trap, so what is your next premise? Yes we saw oil on the surface when it was gushing. I believe I did see oil on the surface when they were spraying corexit. Apparently now there is no oil on the surface, but I don't know that. I just believe it because the tv told me to. As was pointed out, we only know what we've been allowed to know. Has there been and independent and unbiased assessment and investigation of the events of the past 100+ days or are we going off of government propaganda...excuse me.... PR?
Please, somebody tell me i'm crazy!!
"There comes a point when you have to abandon reason and logic in order to maintain the believability of the official story."
The abandonment of logic and reason transcends to spirituality and religion. As not intended to compensate for mercantilist pablum, I'd suggest dispensing with any consideration of official pronouncement credibility.
I didn't imply that and I didn't say that. I am saying that there is no mystery/secret well gushing oil into the Gulf. Besides the "evidence" for it being misinterpretations of coordinates of ROVs and then leaps of faith (at best), there's no massive amount of oil like we all saw gushing out of a well till July 15. There's no sign of such a thing. But If you want to believe it's there nevertheless, go ahead.
I can't confirm or deny the existence of other leaks. What I can do is say that I don't trust the 'official' reports. There have been far too many instances where they completely fabricated information or just outright lied. I'm trying to take the most conservative/rational approach to this. I am choosing to not believe much of anything that these clowns say. That pretty much outlines how I've felt since this thing began, utter disbelief.
We all believe what we want to. I believe that we can't really know one way or another. Trust them if you want to, I am choosing not to. I'd rather be overly paranoid about this subject than lower my defenses only to find that they were lying to us about some or all of this. That's what works for me, you do your thing too, we'll call it even. PEACE!
PS sorry to words in your mouth, it was not my intent to distort. I misinterpreted your initial position.
duplicate
I have no idea what I "saw" other than the same crews cleaning the same beaches, the same boats pulling the same booms, the same fishing vessels laying out the same booms, the same oil trucks being loaded with the same oily water, the same red oil slicks from the same airplane, the same oil being burned on the surface, the same overhead shots of the same drilling rigs and support vessels.
All I ever saw was the same 20 seconds of video on endless loops displayed by CNN, NBC, ABC shot by the same pooled reporters to be distributed by the same AP, Reuters etc.
So NO I did not "see" all that oil. I have no idea what I saw and if anyone claims that since they "saw it on TeeVee it must be real" they have crossed over into the twilight zone and are hopelessly conditioned and indoctrinated by the state nannies.
Since we're supposed to believe nothing that we hear and only half of what we see, you're sol then. Take a look around the web for photos of the Gulf from May and June.
http://dailybail.com/home/bp-questions-linger-a-tale-of-two-wells-video.html
Following up on a lead from a ZH commenter over the weekend, I vetted the claims that BP is showing us footage from an already-capped wellhead.
Please read the post above on The Daily Bail. This is NOT the claim that there are gaping holes in the seafloor miles away (which Matt Simmons was claiming). This is a claim that BP moved their ROVs while everyone was out of the area due to Tropical Storm Bonnie, and as soon as they got back, they found a way to stop the leak! How lucky!
mr. don,
i hear you. let me point out ....a mistake in sited article...
.
"..This ROV feed was on May 30, 2010. Oil plumes into the Gulf and the coordinates are above (abbrv. e. value) – 512 – two feet from the drill site of Well B, (wrong) the one that so violently blew out in April during drilling operations. Remember, Well A had been capped, and there were no drilling operations at the time. ..."
.
incorrect. look at the n coordinate values of the feed and well a and b. start with b.
the (non typo?) value.. n : 10431494 00' . the value on the 5/30/10 live feed is
n : 10432275.56. is this a location "two feet" from "the drill site of Well B"?
if so i need to see the transformation and know how it was employed. otherwise
it is 781' feet away from well b as specified in the documents recorded.
.
"And if there isn’t a good explanation, then once again, sharpen your pitchforks, because it’s angry mob time."
.attorney Don Smith.
I hope you didn't send along your money to attorney Don Smith if you aren't him. Where's the oil from that "other" well? Invisible, or what? You "vetted" your own article?
that's a stupid question
I am him, and no, it wasn't my article I vetted. The article I posted on Finutia was my vetting of the video that The Daily Bail posted ("Tale of Two Wells").
I admit, my comment here implies I vetted my own article. That would, in fact, be retarded. However, I've been trying to get someone with some expertise to explain why this claim is bogus. The ONLY response I've gotten is "If that's true, where's the oil?" Fair question. I don't know. But I do believe that we are seeing a different well head now then we were seeing in May. Why is that? I don't know, but I want someone to find out.
The claim makes a leap of faith at the jump off point. If ROV #1 is 500' or whatever away, it must be looking at something that BP doesn't want the public to see, and that must be a second well. Except there is 0 evidence that the other well was ever started, much less finished. For one thing, it doesn't have an API#. All wells have to have one before they can be drilled. That pretty much does in the second well theory, unless you want to claim that BP would risk a $700M rig and the end of its life if they got caught when all they had to do was apply to drill it and have MMS rubber stamp the application. Then there are the coordinates that are used as "proof". They're coordinates of the ROVs and they aren't the same as GPS coordinates. In fact they have no intrinsic meaning because the reference point is an undersea transmitter/receiver. GPS doesn't work a mile under the surface. How about maintaining a perfect conspiracy of silence despite there being 1000s of people who'd have to know, from several companies in addition to BP, some of whom lost their workers and who'd turn in an instant to cop a deal? Bonnie hit around June 24. They couldn't have started a second well then. It takes many months to drill a well to that depth. The time frame is impossible. Then, there's no extrinsic evidence - gushing oil, 50,000+ bbl/day, impossible for lots of it not to be seen at the surface no matter how much Corexit is applied. If that's not enough, let me know.
All we know is what we're told. We know nothing more than we are told because BP and the government have a tight cap on the news cycle. I find it very interesting that suddenly 75% of the oil is "gone" (however you wish to define "gone") and many of the fishing areas are being opened up, including many that were previously admitted as having been heavily oiled and not completely cleaned.
Fisherman are still reporting oil either on the surface, in the weeds and grass or in the subsurface mud where the crabs and shrimp are found. Lot's of shell fish are showing up with oil, in some cases worse than ever before, but this doesn't get much mainstream notice because the story is that all is "well" pun intended.
Anyone who tells me "they" can't keep a lid on problems if they still exist don't understand (or don't wish to understand) how thoroughly captured the mainstream media is. If you wish to work in TV or newspaper, you don't ask questions that the government doesn't wish to be asked. That includes 9/11, the stolen elections of 2000 and 2004, the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, trillions is fraudulent US Treasuries and on and on and on.
in regards to the 'evaporated' oil, it doesn't vanish into Narnia as we're told to think of it------>
from wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_matter
Oil's not an element. It has a lot of components. Some evaporate fairly quickly, some slowly, some not at all: ergo tarballs.
[edit] To whoever junked this, take care to not walk too close to the edge of the earth and fall off.
What I am trying to outline is that although it may evaporate, evaporation does not equal destruction. The components don't vanish out of existence. Am I right in that assertion? Evaporated corexit is less harmful than liquid corexit? If this is the case, why is it not mandatory that all harmful materials be made to evaporate into harmless 'components'?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporation
There's still the potential for RW failure, including another blowout. Why that's not enough to keep skeptics fed I don't know. People can see oil. Remember what it looked like before July 14? These "second well" aficionados never explain where the oil that's supposedly gushing from the second well is. Fisherman reporting oil are right. But the areas they're reporting surface oil in are closed to fishing because, guess what, there's still some surface oil appearing there, and it may happen on and off for months. It doesn't take thousands of bbls/day of oil gushing into the Gulf for residual oil from the blown out well that's currently capped to show on the surface in spots.
Something strange this way comes.
While this has always been a prime time Mickey Mouse show, it passed over into the twilight zone when suddenly we were told the cap-that-came-out-of-no-where was going to solve all our problems. As far back as I can remember, it was always (as our oil and gas industry ZH commentors constantly reminded us during May, June and July) that the relief well(s) were the only way to permanently kill this well.
Right up until it wasn't. Then it was....er...wasn't...er...was maybe almost the only way to kill the well, unless the static top kill does it first. Then the relief well might actually makes things worse. Now there's oil trapped. Before we know it, we'll see out of work oil and gas industry employees re-employed to man the protest line in front of the white house with signs that say "Free the Macondo oil and gas."
I can't wait to hear the latest rationalization, justifications and excuses for the latest "As The BP Stomach Turns" episode.
Given how absurd some of the Simmons-esque theories were, I wouldn't quite say that GW is owed an apology.. but he certainly gets a sizable chunk of "I told you so" on this one.
Not that I've ever trusted BP or the gov on this one bit, mind you.
Back when static kill came out of absolutely no where I recall that over at Oil Drum any comment that suggested things weren't Kosher was quickly dismissed as conspiratorial, like mentioning the words methane and plume in the same sentence or buying into the idea that the Pres was technically not swimming in the Gulf on the weekend.
.
Everyone is swimming in the gulf in Florida. I was just swimming in the gulf on Sunday.There is no oil here.
Yet.
You know that a surgeon can take care of that for you... not to mention that you probably want to rethink your cycle.
Darwinism.
But did you develop Bitch Tits before, or after swimming in the gulf?
Don't tell us that Corexit is an endocrine disruptor.
Oildrum sucks now...it is filled with idiot references to blue bell ice cream, non-stop references to her stupid bloomberg machine by mummsie, and straight out denials of anything but talk of the well being dead. It started out as a great source of info, now it is just about bashing anyone that suggests things aren't as rosy as the gov't is making them out to be. Oh yeah, don't forget the we-are-the-world, how do i make the world a better place, never ending questions from Heiro. Damn...I just scrolled down and saw the captcha!
It does indeed. Used to be great analysis. But the trolls got the better of the board.
It is also the nature of this drama though. Who does one believe? Is it like th efaked moon landings? Like 9/11? Like Tonkin? Like Liberty?
Only thing frustratingly clear to those with eyes that see is that something wicked definitely this way comes and it's drenched in Corexit, colourless, tasteless, odourless and bad for you.
ORI
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com
Hey Indian - what about that earthquake that you prophecised to hit the Pac Northwest on July 31? And what about the "nuke the well" that was supposed to happen (according to your visions) on or about TODAY Aug. 16? Seems to me you might have a credibility problem, but don't let that slow you down.
As well as ZH. Sounds like "Mission Accomplished" when it comes to corporate and governmental disinformation and psyops campaigns.
A fearsomely omnipotent Leviathian surrealistically manages control of our illusions proving the futility of resistance, triumphing through the very manipulation of our own Contempt Prior to Investigation, delivered in the form of comfortable, Seductive Sirens, shrouded 'neath veils of Altruism.
They stalk amongst us, as friends, neighbors, as traitors to honesty for truth is relative itself, as malleable as the gold paid put for services rendered undesired.
Josef Goebbels would be proud.
oildrum sucks... could be worse.
I've been reading TheOilDrum for a long, long time. Shortly after the April 20 blowout, TheOilDrum was infested with trolls-the 'alls well, nothing to see here' kind, as well as the 'argue about irrelevant things' kind. Several posters noted and listed the trolls, all of which signed up after the blowout occurred. Of course, whatever the admin there did was not effective, and many (if not most) of the regulars either gave up or just ignored the troll posters, something that newbies did not have the capability to do. One of the trolls there is named 'snakehead,' just so you know.
GW, you sure do attract the trolls-maybe you are doing something very right! Five stars!
You didn't mention the oil-is-heavier-than-water, BOP got launched through a mile of seawater and 7 miles downrange lunatics that showed up.
Yes, with VW and some of the others, it is very much nothing to see here move along. The part I can't figure out is why I am falling in line with this campaign? I know the data is bullshit and that all of the oil didn't just disappear, I know the well isn't dead, and I know that people are going to have health problems down the road...but all I really care about at this point is seeing this story disappear b/c I am sick of hearing about it. TPTB are just too good at what they do apparently, how sad.