This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Is the Well Integrity Test Failing?
BP suspended the "top kill" operation for 16 hours - because, according to numerous experts, it was creating more damage to the well bore - without even telling the media, local officials or the public that it had delayed the effort until long afterwards.
BP also admitted - many days after
it stopped the top kill attempt - (1) that BP had to stop because mud
was leaking out below the seafloor, and (2) that capping the well from
the top could blow out the whole well.
Similarly, it took more than 5 hours for BP to publicly announce the delay of the "well integrity test" after the decision to delay was made.
So BP doesn't have a great track record of promptly informing us of what is happening.
But now that the well integrity test (background here and here) is underway, can we somehow tell if it's working or not?
The
government previously announced that the test would succeed if pressure
in the well of 8,000-9,000 psi were observed for a sustained period. As
Coast Guard admiral Thad Allen said:
We
are looking for somewhere between 8,000 and 9,000 PSI inside the
capping stack, which would indicate to us that the hydrocarbons are
being forced up and the wellbores are being able to withstand that
pressure. And that is good news.
If we are down around in the
4,000 to 5,000, 6,000 range that could potentially tell us that the
hydrocarbons are being diverted someplace else, and we would have to
try and assess the implications of that. And as you might imagine,
there are gradations as you go up from 4,000 or 5,000 PSI up to 8,000
or 9,000. …
We will at some point try to get to 8,000 or 9,000
and sustain that for some period of time, and these will be done
basically, as I said — if we have a very low pressure reading, we will
try and need (ph) at least six hours of those readings to try to ensure
that that is the reading. If it’s a little higher, we want to go for 24
hours. And if it’s up at 8,000 or 9,000, we would like to go 48 hours
just to make sure it can sustain those pressures for that amount of
time.
Images from BP's Oly Rov1 feed show the gauge for the input on the blowout preventer has been 2,000 psi for quite some time:
And the Hos ROV1 camera shows pressure of less than 1,000 bpi on another gauge:
However, as BP's Kent Wells explained earlier today:
People
still looking at pressure gauges and talking about that. The pressure
sensing devices are what we call pressure transducers and they send a
signal to the surface which are then are converted to their actual
pressure readings. So we will not have ROV cameras on pressure gauges
that will show what the pressures are during the tests. The pressure
gauges you see are for our hydraulic equipment or (accumulators) et
cetera like that.
So the gauges don't necessarily mean anything.
Also, there was an apparent explosion of oil coming out of the cap. As Bloomberg noted tonight:
BP Plc said it will begin a pressure test of its
gushing Gulf of Mexico well after fixing a leak that erupted while it
was shutting off oil flow with a new containment cap.
The leak was detected in a “choke line” leading from the stack of valves....
Hypothetically, BP will fix the choke leak, and then re-start the test.
The Times-Picayune has a good video explaining the process and at least
some of what we're looking at:
But
given BP's track record, we may not find out until hours, days or even
weeks after the results are in whether the test is a success or failure.
- advertisements -
Geo Wash,
This may be your new source for new theories.
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/dire-realities-methane-predicament-dr-tom...
Auggie I waw wondering what your thoughts are on the methane? Does it even exist, if so where is it and what if any harm can it do?
None - according to Auggie's link:
... The elements are quite responsive to our collective thoughts and ideas, feelings and emotions, intentions and motivations. We can and do co-create the future of the Gulf of Mexico with each thought and feeling, so why not become a part of the solution.
All we have to do is think the right thoughts and feel the correct emotions and the methane will do our bidding.
So let me get this straight.
The pressure integrity tests were supposed to get underway on Tuesday but Unified Command decided it needed a 24 hour time out to triple check everything. So after postponing yesterday's 2pm briefing to 5pm, Admiral Thad announced that they were going to proceed. Within 30 minutes of that announcement BP puts this on their site that there is a leak in part of the apparatus:
http://www.bp.com/extendedsectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=40&content...
How can people here defend Unified Command and BP when they clearly are doing their best but are also clearly in way over their heads.
In the prior thread by GW he was watching the play by play last night and observed this:
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/oil-industry-expert-government-and-bp-a...
Seems to me GW was on to something well ahead of the pack.
The headlines here this morning (Tampa /St. pete http://www.tampabay.com/incoming/after-much-caution-feds-give-bp-okay-to...) claim they were doing a gradual build-up & only got permission to go full-bore last night. If true, any "news" on that front was not firm yet when you wrote this piece. Maybe today (Thursday)...
And now, your moment of Zen from John Graham, president of BP Wind Energy:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bp-no-plans-to-sell-alternative-energy-...
I know BP is a business, and as such its survival depends on cost-return calculations... but the irony is quite rich....
How many times do you want to post the same falulty conclusions and accusations?
The effects of storms and waves on a wind mill built on a pile of riprap at the surface would be quite different from what those effects would be at more than 100 ft. down. How does a hurricane affect a sailboat vs. the submarine? Perhaps the fellow from BP knows something about the difference and you don't?
It's official George Washington, you're a blathering idiot.
Totally uncalled for, putz.
It was not totally uncalled for. You should have seen his article as he first posted it. My 8 year old could have done better.
Whereas you are a fountainhead of infinite wisdom, deductive genius, unparalleled sophistication and wit? We get it, you don't like GW or his commentary. Why do you torture yourself with it?
Regarding fixing the choke line leak/fracture, BP has some words:
http://www.bp.com/extendedsectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=40&content...
They have officially started the test. The above indicates the leak already had to have been a non-issue at the start of the test procedure.
Another potential wrinkle - WH statement now says the trajectory is to continue with collection of oil, NOT to keep the well shut in, regardless of outcome of current test (h/t Swift Loris on TOD):
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/readout-president-obamas-call...
There does not seem to be enough info available to venture an informed guess as to the outcome of the 'integrity test' right now. What I fail to understand is how this cap 'n plug operation is fundamentally different from the tried-and-abandoned attempt at top kill from the standpoint of its risk to the well's integrity. Another poster here on ZH brought up the idea that the thought process leading to stopping the top kill was 'forgotten', and it took Chu's involvement to realign the aims of the current effort. A more cynical viewpoint might be to assume they expected the public to forget about /not question the fact that shutting off the well from above had been tried and stopped due to worries about damage to the well from excess pressures involved.
I believe they wrestled with fixing tha leak most of last night. If the test is underway then you could conclude that they were able to fix it while you were asleep. Robots are like that.
IF it can't hold more than 2,000 PSI there are big problems. However, I read on www.theoildrum.com by Heading Out that one of the dials being looked at by one of the ROVs was a hydraulic pressure reading. And the article this morning also said the well pressure readings were by way of transducer and not gages.
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6729
It's in the Kent Wells technical update transcript from 0730 CDT. Far be it from GW to do any research before he posts total nonsense. How he gets to contribute to ZH is beyond me.
CD - you may have made my day. I hope you're right!
Augustus, gasmiinder ... please tell me I'm wrong! I want to be wrong on this!
The gauges you are showing are not what they are monitoring for these pressure tests. So, yes, you are wrong.
Whenever I discuss peak oil, I always say, "And I pray for zero point."
GW, please keep up the great work.