Dredging and the Deepwater Horizon well

[Massacure]

Shouldn't it be possible to to use a vacuum dredge to lift sand from the seabed and then pile that sand on top of the Deepwater Horizon wellhead? Would sand be suitable for capping a well? What kind of difficulties might such a scheme face?

[Ruby the Liberal]

1. The pressure would likely blow right through anything they tried to put on top of it.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. Somewhere down along the string of pipe there should be a one way

check valve in place. This valve should only be able to pass oil when a physical pressure is applied to it from above. There would be nothing more failsafe than that.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Check_valve

[TransitJohn]

3. That doesn't make any sense.

You realize while drilling that drilling mud is continually pumped down the drill string and circulates back up the annulus, right?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Nope.... don't know how it's done but there should be some sort of

mechanical stop that CANNOT fail... somewhere, somehow, someway. Failing that, well we see the results.

[TransitJohn]

8. They're called BOPs.

:scared:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

14. I've seen them, I've seen them being built my gawd what an expensive

piece of hardware.. millions upon millions per copy the ones I've seen.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. And furthermore, you do realize that check valves allow flow in one

direction, how many directions does the drilling fluid have to travel?

[TransitJohn]

6. Both down and up.

down the drill string, and back up the annulus (open hole or cased hole). Hydrocarbons come up the annulus, so a check valve would always be open, because that's how the mud returns to surface.

On edit: I'm looking through my hard drive for some pictures to illustrate it. :hi:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

7. So this dilemma both blows and sucks. Not good. n/t

[jdlh8894]

9. As does any drilling site

[TransitJohn]

11. Crude diagram

I just threw this together, I'm at work on a well in Fort Worth, and away from most of my software at home.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

13. Seems to me that the mud may not have been dropping as they were

pulling out the drill string. I am sure we will never know exactly what transpired. Sounds as if the hydrostatic forces on the well got out of balance somehow, someway.

[The Croquist]

15. Thanks

I don't really understand the issues and I haven't really been able to find a site explaining all the problems.

When I read that the "dome" wasn't going to work because of "hydrates" I couldn't find a good explanation. They said that they are lighter then air but I don't see why that is insurmountable. I haven't noticed the Titanic bobbing up to the surface lately and it's deeper and been down there for 100 years. Why can't they load it down with something heavier like iron to increase it's density?

[Arctic Dave]

12. Man, if we could figure out a check valve system we could be millionaires.

Maybe make a check valve that clmps around the drill stem and travels with the pipe a it goes down. When recieves a burst of pressure the locking mechanism unlatch and it seats itself.

Putting a check valve in the drilling string would be easy enough, it would act like a sub surface safety valve.

Hmm, I think we might be on to something.

[Speck Tater]

10. The oil is already IN sandstone which it travels right through with no trouble.

Mere sand won't hold it back. It would just be a giant sieve at best. The oil would just pour right through the spaces between the sand grains.