BP expects Gulf oil siphon to work after setback

[HughMoran]

Source: AP

ROBERT, La.—BP hopes to start using a mile-long tube to siphon oil from its blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico by Saturday night after a setback. If successful, the deepsea experiment would reduce but not end a spill that's spewed millions of gallons of crude into the ocean.

...

Technicians have been working since early Friday to insert the tube into an oil pipe a mile beneath the surface using robotic submarines. The tube is intended to suck oil up like a straw to a tanker on the surface, while a stopper surrounding it would keep crude from leaking into the sea.

The effort hit a snag Friday when engineers trying to connect the lengthy tube to framework on the bottom of the ocean couldn't get the two pieces connected, BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles said. The framework had to be brought to the surface to be adjusted Suttles said.

The framework was returned to the ocean floor, and engineers were attempting again to hook it up. They hoped to start bringing up oil by Saturday night, Suttles said.

If it works, BP thinks it could stop more than three-quarters of the leak. A smaller leak is several thousand feet away at the site of the blowout preventer. BP would continue to spray undersea dispersants at that leak until the entire well could be plugged.

Read more: http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2010/05/15/salazar_latest_effort_to_stop_oil_leak_hits_snag/

---

I hope this helps :(

[hedgehog]

1. BP expected to make a killing drilling for oil in the Gulf......

[BeFree]

2. Gawd, I hope it works.

Of course they should have had this thing ready to go three weeks ago.


It's all a big experiment, now. They want to see how far they can go. Sure, they hate that the rig went down. But now they are experimenting how far they can take this.

Later, they can say: "Look, the gulf took millions of gallons of oil and we kept the beaches clean. Now, can you idiots just leave us alone and let us provide your gas?"

[FLPanhandle]

3. As someone who is watching his town's beach daily, I hope this works

There is a reason we were against drilling!

[gimama]

10. I'm watching mine, too

Galveston..
and WE are still recovering from ike.

[Downwinder]

4. Lets see, you are going to take the flow from a 21" pipe and

handle it with a 6" pipe. Well OK, if you say so.

[HughMoran]

5. Gonna have to have a massive pump at the surface to move the 200 gal/min or so

of oil blowing out of that pipe. Some quick digging shows that it appears to be possible.

[Downwinder]

6. On the blowout they had enough pressure to send it 240' over

the platform. I don't think "pumping" is going to be the problem.

[HughMoran]

7. but the backpressure

The 'stopper' will likely not be able withstand the pressure head needed to push the oil up the pipe. Sucking it faster than it 'blows' will minimize the pressure head.

[Downwinder]

8. 200 gpm, that's a basement pump. This is a flood.

[HughMoran]

11. That's the estimated flow rate

don't know what to tell you :shrug:

[protocol rv]

14. They are going to use a packing element

The plan is to insert a tube inside the 21 inch pipe.I believe they plan to use a 6 inch diameter tube. This tube is surrounded by something like a large rubber stopper, or packing element. The idea is to have the hydrocarbons enter the 6 inch tube, and the packing element will isolate the 21 inch pipe innards from the sea water outside. What I don't understand is how do they plan to stop hydrate formation - I suspect they have a means to inject anti freeze.

[Fool Count]

9. To put it more precisely, BP gives up on trying to stop the leak

and attempts to recover at least some oil out of this well. What geniuses.

[HughMoran]

12. I really don't give a crap if they stop it up or pump it faster than it flows

so long as it stops spilling into the Gulf water!

[Downwinder]

13. I'm with you there. Being just an old farm boy and not an

engineer and being long removed from the oil patch, I'm having problems making any sense from the media reports.

[protocol rv]

15. They are trying to stop the leak using a relief well

The leak has to be stopped, but they can't do it right now.

[Joanne98]

16. BP attempts 'riser insertion,' but fails to contain oil spill in Gulf of Mexico

Source: WP

An attempt to use a mile-long tube to capture most of the oil gushing from a well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico failed on the first try, but technicians were working Saturday night to put the pipe in place, BP officials said.

The "riser insertion" tactic, which gained support from BP engineers only in recent days, is akin to inserting one straw into another straw. The goal is to contain the oil in the main riser pipe before it reaches open water, where natural gas quickly combines with the water to form slushy methane hydrates that have complicated previous attempts to contain the leak.

But the effort ran into mechanical trouble on the first stab, BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles said. Giving few details, he said there was a problem connecting a 5,000-foot string of pipe to the "tool" being inserted into the damaged pipe. The tool was retrieved by a surface ship and an adjustment was made, Suttles said.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that another BP oil rig, the Atlantis, has operated in the gulf with incomplete and inaccurate engineering documents, a deficiency that prompted one BP official to warn could "lead to catastrophic operator error."



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/15/AR2010051503543.html

[BrklynLiberal]

17. Wow. what a surprise. what is plan h?

[Hawkeye-X]

18. Plan H? I thought BP was already on Plan 1a3b5c7d98

think hex :)

[BrklynLiberal]

20. lol

;-)

[boppers]

33. 112665066904?

Am I missing the significance of that number?

[Hawkeye-X]

34. Nah. It's the standard password for most wifi we set up. Except the last two digits

are different. Always.

[htuttle]

19. Trying to shove a mile-long straw into a gushing faucet

I mean, how hard it be?

:eyes:

Welcome to the limits of human ingenuity. Not a proud human right now. Not proud...

[ladjf]

21. They keep trying using smaller carriers to connect to the larger pipe.

That automatically ups the pressure therefore velocity and force. I suggest that they think in terms of collaring the 21" outlet pipe with a larger confinement to reduce pressure.

For example, a 25" pipe slipped over the 21" and direct the flow upward to a surface tanker.

Another possibility would be a rather large, say 50' across inverted funnel, (could be similar to
an oil storage tank with a peak). Then pump it out like that tried to do with the first containment which clogged up with ice. The larger one wouldn't clog up.

Another possibility would be to lower two or three high capacity pumps with the inlets very near the plum to put a huge amount of vacuum force directed at the leak. I believe that could pull the oil to the surface with no impediment.

Another possibility: would be to first shore up the 21" pipe with a very heavy duty collar to protect against breaking off from the force. Then insert a slowly tapered steel rod covered with a type of cement that would act as a sealant. The insertion force would be a pile driving type force, carefully applied a micro inch at a time, while applying heat to the first twenty or thirty feet of the 21" pipe ( a heated collar) to make the 21" pipe expand some to allow the tapered rod to be inserted. Then remove the heat from the collar to allow the 21" pipe to contract onto the tapered rod.

The bottom line is that the Gulf of Mexico cannot get totally wiped up by a 21" leaking pipe. Surely
there are engineers somewhere in the world that can solve this problem and soon.

[rzemanfl]

22. Where does one get a mile of 25" pipe on short notice? I really

think they are going to end up having to nuke this thing.

[mbperrin]

25. Here's one place. I'd hate to have to buy all the casing stocked in this

country.


http://www.oilfieldpipe.com/steelcasingpipe.htm

. Our rolled and welded steel pipe is produced in outside diameters of 24-inch through 150-inch.

[ladjf]

28. One mile of oil pipe is nothing to the oil business. nt

[ladjf]

27. Obtaining and connecting up a mile of pipe should be no problem

for a business that regularly deals in thousands of miles of pipe. It might take a few days to assemble but it is doable in my opinion.

Re: the nuke: I think that solutions is just too dangerous. It might simple blow a 50 yd wide and 100 yds deep hole in the bottom of ocean, creating a situation that could never be stopped.

Better than that would be to dump about a thousand tons of oil well cement on top of the hole. But,the outflow might simply kick that away from the leak as the cement is dropped. Could be big chunks of broken cement dumped all at once from large barges.

[mbperrin]

29. And the working pressure of many of these wells is around

10,000 psi. You're right - increasing pressure is not the answer.

[jonthebru]

32. They need to heat it

So the Methane doesn't freeze and crystallize. I think nuclear energy is the best option, its pretty hot, isn't it?

What a frickin' mess.

[PJPhreak]

23. Meanwhile,

"The Associated Press reported that another BP oil rig, the Atlantis, has operated in the gulf with incomplete and inaccurate engineering documents, a deficiency that prompted one BP official to warn could "lead to catastrophic operator error."


EXCUSE ME?? And I won't even bother to abbrevate...WHAT THE FUCK??

[havocmom]

26. EXACTLY!

If you or I damaged even a little bit of water or trees on a mountain, we would be in jail pronto. If you or I allowed $ over worker safety and killed some workers, we would be in jail pronto.

These economic/environmental terrorists get to go about their business, violating laws every damned day?

Oh, there is no epithet foul enough to match my rage.

[havocmom]

24. Obama HAS to tell them to stop fucking around trying to save the oil and just plug the hole!

If he can't say that, he might ask Joe Biden to say it in words BP will understand.

They need to shut it down, not fiddle around trying to salvage any profits from the oil.

The bastards killed people, they held survivors on a ship until they signed waivers. It the survivors didn't sign, were they gonna be tossed in the water and added to the list of those killed in the explosion?

They have been lying about the amount of crude pouring into the Gulf. They have been pointing fingers and whining that somebody else is responsible.

They keep stalling, while they wrack their brains to find a way to harvest oil from that well.

Make them do the deed and shut it down NOW, or SHUT THEM DOWN.

Then, put them in nice secure place while real investigators get the facts and start the criminal proceedings. Take their assets, take their freedom.

They killed workers and held other workers hostage. Then they poisoned a massive amount of ocean, destroyed livelihoods and made offensive offers of $5K to the ruined people.

Obama, tell them to shut off the leak or you will. Or step aside.

[ladjf]

30. I am hard pressed to believe that the revenue from the production

of this one insignificant well would be worth the exposure they are taking by allowing it to gush out. But, there is just no telling what unbridled greed can cause. You might be right.

[watajob]

31. Does BP actually think anyone is taking them seriously?

They're pulling stuff out of their ass in an attempt to avert our attention from the fact that the only viable solution to the problem is drilling the relief valve. NINETY DAYS! By that time, the world's fishing stock will probably be irreparably harmed. Who knew the "antichrist" would be named Tony Hayward?! :yoiks: