Exclusive Raw Video: BP's Oil Funnel Contraption Lowered Into The Ocean Above Leak Site

[Turborama]

Run time: 01:26 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHENCA38pHk   Posted on YouTube: May 07, 2010 By YouTube Member: AssociatedPress Views on YouTube: 258   Posted on DU: May 07, 2010 By DU Member: Turborama Views on DU: 1319

 
AP Exclusive raw video shows workers easing a giant concrete-and-steel box into the Gulf of Mexico late Thursday, starting the long process of lowering the contraption over the blown-out oil well.

[CLANG]

1. Am I the only one that thinks this is going to be less than successful?

[madmax]

7. No

I know we all desperately for this to work but...

[SPedigrees]

12. I hope it will succeed, but fear it will not.

Time will tell.

[marions ghost]

2. gonna be kinda slippery down there...

I thought they had to have the pipe in place first? Otherwise it seems it would fill up in a hurry. Maybe the pipe goes in after the box is down there.

Seems a primitive kind of fix for a gusher. But if it works, then ships will have to take away the oil all the time, til finally the pressure goes down and the thing is more under control? Can the refineries handle the incoming?

I'm trying to understand this.

[Statistical]

9. It is a primitive fix.

Obviously once it is in place without the pipe the oil will just flow out of it but it lets them make sure it is secure.

The next step is to connect riser pipe to pumping ship.
The ship will pump continually. The output of the leak is less than the output of this well at full capacity anyways so refineries should have plenty of capacity.

The fix is just temporary. It is to "scoop up" the oil while they drill the relief well. Since relief well will take 90 days and it is gushing at 200K gallons per day if they didn't do this 18 million gallons would leak out while they drilled. This might catch 80% of that.

[marions ghost]

17. thanks

I'm getting a better picture from your explanation for us laypersons.

90 days!

So the relief well is supposed to take the pressure down so they can cap the messed up well? And then they'll just keep using the relief well to take the oil out & put it into production? I hope they have a way to cap that one in case of problems.

I have no idea of the capacity of a ship, but I guess they will need a few ships?

[eagertolearn]

3. Opening at top looks way to small. Won't it just blow with the pressure?

I'm really hoping it does work though.

[Texifornia]

4. It's big enough...

to supply the capacity of the receiving ship at minimum. This thing is very large, so looks can be deceiving. The riser that will connect actually will convey warm(ish) water down an annulus and suck the oil up through the center. This along with ethanol injection at a few points along the way are to keep hydrates (a waxy ice) from forming and blocking the flow.

This thing is way more complicated that an upside-down funnel with a garden hose attached. I really hope it works, but it is a little like releasing an early beta version of a program and expecting there to be no bugs.

[madmax]

10. +1

[chill_wind]

13. edit-delete

[breadandwine]

15. Texifornia & Clang ----

Texifornia, you say,

"way more complicated than an upside-down funnel with a garden hose attached."

And yet, it IS:


AN UPSIDE DOWN-FUNNEL WITH A GARDEN HOSE ATTACHED.



Just AMAZING that looks can be NOT deceiving.



Clang, you are NOT the only one who thinks it won't work. That thing has a narrow nozzle for an oil well with a channel that is FIVE FEET WIDE and has had explosive gases coming up that blew out the whole rig to start this whole disaster. The temperatures and pressures down there are enormous and they are testing the limits of the technology. But they are also worried about frozen methane. The whole thing gets really complicated, heat and cold buffeting the whole contraption. This oil well blew out the giant Horizon. Now they're going to fix it with a PHONE BOOTH? I don't think so.



Why aren't they sending down something bigger? Because the lawyers are saying "Get something off the shelf down there quick so we can say in the legal proceedings that we tried something!" So much of what BP is doing in this crisis is public relations driven, not responsibility-driven.






See this:


Science fiction becoming science fact ---


•••••• Video - BP's "Crack In The World" - from 1965 movie to real life nightmare ••••••


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8269354&mesg_id=8269354



Now we are discussing "mistakes BP made in the Horizon drilling disaster."

Soon we will be discussing "Mistakes BP made in the coffer dam failure."


It's called "Deja vu all over again..."


BP has a long history of screwing up and repeating the same mistakes over and over. In the words of Albert Einstein, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result."



So why should this moment be any different?

[bobwhtmountains]

5. Pipe size

If it is leaking 200,000 gal per day,divided by 24 hours in a
day is about 8,300 gal per hour,divided by 60 minutes in an
hour you get 138 gal per minute.Scaling from the width of the
top the pipe outlet is 12" to 16' inches in diameter.At
work we flow four times that in our systems.The leak they are
attempting to cover is the larger of the two remaining.BP has
been lying about the flow amount from day one anyways so who
even knows the real flow rate. Also I don't know why the hose
wan't put on first and the lowered.I just hope it works

[Statistical]

11. You got a pipe that is 3 miles long lying around?

Pipe is installed in pieces and lowered. Likely a lot easier to do that without this giant thing attached to the end.

1) Get this thing in place
2) Lower pipe and connect it to the cap
3) Start pumping

[annabanana]

6. And yet they run with water bottles in Times Square!. . DAMN

[madmax]

8. Oh anna girl, I hear that nt

[chill_wind]

14. And here's another thread on this (with some dry observations)

I found on page 4 (put into in negative rec territory by the early morning risers.).

I'm in agreement with that poster. I hope somebody builds a second one for dry land:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8288814

[JDPriestly]

16. About 30 seconds into the video, they pull the box up and the oily water

laps around the side. You can see the ugly brown-black goo on the side of the box. Ugly.

You have no idea how sad this all makes me. Dauphin Island near Mobile, Ala. was my favorite special destination on hot summer days.

The beaches were quiet and pristine white. Seemed like the whole world was young and simple. This is just so, so sad.

I remember going crabbing off wharfs near Mobile. I had no idea what I was doing, but just being out there was so free, so great.

The thought of that ugly brown water makes me feel like crying.

If anybody from Mobile is no DU, I'm praying for you. Bellingrath Gardens aren't that far from the ocean.

[eagertolearn]

18. Your right that has to be so thick to stain the side so fast.