Did Deepwater methane hydrates cause the BP Gulf explosion?

[maddezmom]

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Methane hydrates are volatile compounds — natural gas compressed into molecular cages of ice. They are stable in the extreme cold and crushing weight of deepwater, but are extremely dangerous when they build up inside the drill column of a well. If destabilized by heat or a decrease in pressure, methane hydrates can quickly expand to 164 times their volume.

Survivors of the BP rig explosion told interviewers that right before the April 20 blast, workers had decreased the pressure in the drill column and applied heat to set the cement seal around the wellhead. Then a quickly expanding bubble of methane gas shot up the drill column before exploding on the platform on the ocean's surface.

Even a solid steel pipe has little chance against a 164-fold expansion of volume — something that would render a man six feet six inches tall suddenly the height of the Eiffel Tower.

Scientists are well aware of the awesome power of these strange hydrocarbons. A sudden large scale release of methane hydrates is believed to have caused a mass extinction 55 million years ago. Among planners concerned with mega-disasters, their sudden escape is considered to be a threat comparable to an asteroid strike or nuclear war. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a Livermore, Ca.-based weapons design center, reports that when released on a large scale, methane hydrates can even cause tsunamis.

more:http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/20/deepwater-methane-hydrates-bp-gulf

[Botany]

1. The explosion was caused by a surge of methane gas which made it up ...

.... to the drilling rig.

[dipsydoodle]

2. I'd mentioned those in other posts since the event occured.

Only a few years ago your government was actually considering allowing mining for methane hydrates off the coast of NC. There is apparently an acknowledged risk of destabilising the continental shelf there doing so.

Present company acccepted - some of things you even consider doing over there defy fucking belief.

[maddezmom]

3. I hear ya dipsy

:crazy:

[maddezmom]

4. found a couple more links

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The U.S. R&D program is focused on the two major technical constraints to production: 1) the need to detect and quantify methane hydrate deposits prior to drilling, and 2) the demonstration of methane production from hydrate at commercial volumes. Recent and planned research and field trials should answer these two issues.

In recent field tests, researchers have demonstrated the capability to predict the location and concentration of methane hydrate deposits using reprocessed conventional 3-D seismic data, and new techniques, including multi-component seismic, are being tested. Modeling of small-volume production tests in the U.S. and Canadian Arctic suggest that commercial production is possible using depressurization and thermal stimulation from conventional wellbores. Large-scale production tests are planned in the Canadian Arctic in the winter of 2008 and in the U.S. Arctic in the following year.

Demonstration of production from offshore deposits will lag behind Arctic studies by three to five years, because marine deposits are less well documented, and marine sampling and well tests are significantly more expensive.

more:

http://fossil.energy.gov/programs/oilgas/hydrates/


Results from DOE Expedition Confirm Existence of Resource-Quality Gas Hydrate in Gulf of Mexico
Issued on: March 30, 2010

Initial Scientific Results Now Available on DOE-Sponsored Gas Hydrate Expedition
Washington, D.C. — Gas hydrate, a potentially immense energy resource, occurs at high saturations within reservoir-quality sands in the Gulf of Mexico, according to reports released by the Office of Fossil Energy’s (FE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL).


Initial findings from the May 2009 expedition of the Gulf of Mexico Hydrates Joint Industry Project (JIP) have just been released by NETL. These reports detail the extremely valuable and advanced datasets on the various gas hydrate occurrences that were discovered in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. In addition, the reports provide significant new information on the optimal drilling and well control protocols for deep gas hydrate research projects.


Gas hydrate is a unique solid substance comprised of natural gas (almost exclusively methane) in combination with water. It is thought to exist in great abundance in nature and has the potential to be a significant new energy source to meet future energy needs. However, prior to this expedition, there was little documentation that gas hydrate occurred in resource-quality accumulations in U.S. waters.

more:http://fossil.energy.gov/news/techlines/2010/10010-Hydrate_Expedition_Results_Availab.html

[dipsydoodle]

5. I think this may be the one I found years ago

It's from 1992 :

USGS investigations indicate that gas hydrates may cause landslides on the continental slope.

Seafloor slopes of 5 degrees and less should be stable on the Atlantic continental margin, yet many landslide scars are present. The depth of the top of these scars is near the top of the hydrate zone, and seismic profiles indicate less hydrate in the sediment beneath slide scars. Evidence available suggests a link between hydrate instability and occurrence of landslides on the continental margin. A likely mechanism for initiation of landsliding involves a breakdown of hydrates at the base of the hydrate layer. The effect would be a change from a semi-cemented zone to one that is gas-charged and has little strength, thus facilitating sliding. The cause of the breakdown might be a reduction in pressure on the hydrates due to a sea-level drop, such as occurred during glacial periods when ocean water became isolated on land in great ice sheets.

Gas (Methane) Hydrates -- A New Frontier http://marine.usgs.gov/fact-sheets/gas-hydrates/title.html

It was just something I found by accident after one of my friends mentioned the methane hydrates frozen into the tundra in Russia. They apparently release twenty times as much carbon into the atmosphere than CO2. :(

[dipsydoodle]

6. Odd how this sunk

Maybe not many understand the significance of the subject. :shrug: