BP Rejects Blasts as Oil Well Response

[sabra]

Source: NY Times

In a telephone conference call with reporters, Doug Suttles, the chief operating officer of BP, all but ruled out the use of explosives to crimp or implode the seabed oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico. (A recording of the call will be posted at the Deepwater Horizon Response page late today.)

He described blasting around the well as “not an option we believe we would ever use,” mainly because once it was attempted “we would have denied ourselves all other options.”

Suttles added that none of the experts who’ve been consulted in the ongoing brainstorming over the well “believes explosives should be used to stop the flow.”

That doesn’t leave a lot of options should the “ top kill” procedure, and a possible “ junk shot” chaser, fail.

Read more: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/24/bp-rejects-blasts-as-oil-well-response/

[tomm2thumbs]

1. it has already blown up in their face once - no need for repeats

I'm guessing their next attempt will be to try to flush gobs of toilet paper down at the same time - sure stops up plumbing around here

:sarcasm:

[thereismore]

2. That's what the top kill option is. nt

[tomm2thumbs]

3. true, true

I'm surprised they don't mix in high-strength magnetic bits that would help join and clog up the pipe while clinging to the steel pipe internally - guess they'd have to shoot it with a brass nozzle and who knows what they are dealing with down there

[joanmj]

6. who knows...

but i wish the well would be shut down...

[thereismore]

13. The magnets also stick to each other, which is not good. I thought they should use

lead hairballs - lead pellets coated with fur. Lead for weight, fur to absorb oil and expand.

[Jamastiene]

4. Tampons would do it in a heartbeat.

I know that for a fact. I have a neighbor up the hill from me. Back in the 1920s, in all its infinite lack of wisdom, my hometown water department felt the need to run his sewage pipe through my yard right under my home to the main hookup.

It was terra cotta pipe. Naturally, it clogged up with his girlfriend's various paraphenalia, including tampons, qtips, and God only know what else she stands around flushing all day long. Naturally, the terra cotta pipe broke and it flooded uphill from me. He had to dig the whole thing up and replace it.

He left a trench overnight and his girlfriend flushed tampons, Q-Tips, and I don't know what all else all night long. I swear she has it in for me. I know that for a fact she was flushing tampons, because I saw them floating down the stream he left to under my house.

That was a few years ago. Eventually, they got it all fixed and his sewage no longer runs under my house, thankfully. It still runs through the back yard though.

Now, he has a major clog somewhere downstream again. Guess what? His girlfriend never quit flushing tampons and he's still dealing with it 3 years later. I've broken up with people for less than that.

If BP was to opt for tampons, I would actually say it's the first good idea they have thought of trying, in all honesty.

[tomm2thumbs]

9. omg, actually that isn't a completely off idea when you think of it

thanks for the post - there are also gels that do similar expansive blocking and I hope they are considering everything and anything - no idea is a bad idea.. if it leads to a better idea!

[felinetta]

5. Even if it worked, I have heard they won't do it because they couldn't get the oil. Notice

how they said “we would have denied ourselves all other
options.”  I can smell the BP sleaziness all the way here on
the West coast.

[DLnyc]

12. Certainly BP are greedy bastards, but they can always get the oil, by drilling

another well. Even with limited understanding of the physics of oil fields, it seems pretty clear that once you have found the field, you can always drill another hole nearby. So I don't think the idea that "they won't do it because they couldn't get the oil" makes any kind of logical sense.

If they don't stop the gusher they are probably going bankrupt. If they do stop it, they can either drill another hole later nearby, or sell the rights to the field.

Of course, if any sanity existed in the world of energy policy, deep water wells like this would be banned forever. But stopping up this well or not makes no difference that I can see as to whether they can "get the oil".

[damntexdem]

7. In other words, screw the environmental consequences, they want the oil.

The "other options" they're worried about are not other solutions to plug the well, rather they are options to keep pumping oil from the well. Whether or not a blast would be a good technical solution, they are not willing to look at it because it would, if successful, fill the hole they dug. Now a blast might be a dangerous option that could make things worse -- but that's not why BP is against it. They don't want to lose their well.

[prolesunited]

10. +1

And this is why the feds need to take over at this point. All BP is concerned about it recouping their investment on the well. We need people analyzing this with the motive of finding an effective solution, not protecting profits.

[Trillo]

8. I'd like to hear what top scientists in academia and engineering societies

believe is the best method to stop the gusher.

Edited to add: we've already had at least one report, if not more, that scientists were being ignored.

[Fool Count]

11. Among those "all other options" they are so afraid of denying themselves

the most precious undoubtedly is the option of resuming full production from this well. So precious, indeed, that it only took them a month
to even acknowledge the existence of an approach which would deny them that. Why wouldn't he weigh this "option denial" downside against
the chance that the blast will actually work to seal the leak? Because this chance is pretty much 100%, that's why. There is practically no way
that a sufficiently strong blast would fail in sealing the leak, it simply cannot not work, if executed properly. The only downside - it will destroy
an expensive well in the process. That's why they won't even consider this. It is time for someone who cares less about not "denying ourselves
all other options" and more about saving the Gulf ecosystem and livelihood of people living around it to step in and take over this whole
operation.

[Javaman]

14. because once it was attempted “we would have denied ourselves all other options.”

like drilling for more oil in that spot.

[dugaresa]

15. my first thought when this happened was, "why not use explosives" to stop it

in fact i was at the gym yesterday and was talking to my spouse about it