Don't oil gushers eventually stop all by themselves?

[Junkdrawer]

The time frames talked about for a "relief" well seem to me a lot like the time frames for notable gushers to stop all by themselves.

Perhaps these "Junkyard Wars" type efforts to cap the well is all PR and BP simply wants to wait out the gusher and start tapping the reservoir when the gusher stops. In the mean time, their main effort seems to be in keeping the oil underwater and preventing the PR disaster of black beaches.

Notable gushers

The Lucas Gusher at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas in 1901 flowed at 100,000 barrels (16 000 m³) per day at its peak, but soon slowed and was capped within nine days. The well tripled U.S. oil production overnight and marked the start of the Texas oil industry.<10>

Masjed Soleiman, Persia in 1908 marked the first major oil strike recorded in the Middle East.<11>

The Lakeview Gusher on the Midway-Sunset Oil Field in Kern County, California of 1910 is believed to be the largest-ever U.S. gusher. At its peak, more than 100,000 barrels (16 000 m³) of oil per day flowed out, reaching as high as 200 feet (60 m) in the air. It remained uncapped for 18 months, spilling over nine million barrels (378 million gallons/1.4 million m³) of oil, less than half of which was recovered.<12>

A short-lived gusher at Alamitos #1 in Signal Hill, California in 1921 marked the discovery of the Long Beach Oil Field, one of the most productive oil fields in the world.<13>

The Barroso 2 well in Cabimas, Venezuela in December 1922 flowed at around 100,000 barrels (16 000 m³) per day for nine days, plus a large amount of natural gas.<14>

Baba Gurgur near Kirkuk, Iraq, an oilfield known since antiquity, erupted at a rate of 95,000 barrels (15 000 m³) a day in 1927.<15>

The Wild Mary Sudik gusher in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1930 flowed at a rate of 72,000 barrels (11 500 m³) per day.<16>

The Daisy Bradford gusher in 1930 marked the discovery of the East Texas Oil Field, the largest oilfield in the contiguous United States.<17>

The largest known 'wildcat' oil gusher blew near Qom, Iran on August 26, 1956. The uncontrolled oil gushed to a height of 52 m (170 ft), at a rate of 120,000 barrels per day. The gusher was closed after 90 days' work by Bagher Mostofi and Myron Kinley (USA).<18>


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

[Dreamer Tatum]

1. Several billion gallons later, yes, they do. nt

[Junkdrawer]

2. The largest ever US gusher spilled nine million barrels....

I think this reserve was estimated at a few hundred million barrels.

[Dreamer Tatum]

4. And how many gallons are in a barrel? nt

[CreekDog]

12. 42

[rrneck]

15. 42

Interesting coincedence that...



We're gonna need a helluva towell...

[wildbilln864]

8. what stopped it after nine million?

Did it all just run out or what? :shrug:
If oil is lighter that sea water then it probably won't stop on it's own. Because the heavier water will rush in and push the oil out.

[Junkdrawer]

11. When the pressure is relieved. AFAIK, only a small fraction of the well is lost to the gusher.

Spindletop, for example, went on to produce a lot of oil.

[damntexdem]

17. This oil is DEEP, under tremendous pressure.

It doesn't need sea water rushing in to be forced out.

[wildbilln864]

20. I get that but...

the oil is lighter so it will naturally rise through the water and the pressure will remain constant at that depth.

[FBI_Un_Sub]

24. Like when the internal pressure

in the reservoir becomes too low to drive out the oil.

[KILL THE WISE ONE]

3. so then we should be letting nature fix it - don't worry be happy?

[Junkdrawer]

6. No. I think a REAL effort should be mounted. But BP is in charge....

I'm trying to cut through the bullshit and see things the way they do.

[datasuspect]

13. here is the way BP sees it:

generate revenue, control costs.

BP sees the bottom line.

[Junkdrawer]

14. Exactly. The money spent stopping a gusher a mile down isn't worth...

the money gained in oil saved/retrieved. The rest is a PR problem solved the way ALL PR problems are: lies and a compliant press.

[datasuspect]

19. PR is marketing and marketing can get people to believe ANYTHING

it works like a charm.

they know it, they use it, and the costs get passed to the rest of us eventually. the american people will pay for this oil volcano.

[suffragette]

5. The timeframe seems based on Montara and how long it took

them for that relief well.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/us/03montara.html

[CreatureFeature]

7. So does diarrhea, but the result is still pretty crappy

[lunatica]

9. The Gulf of Mexico oil reserves discovered in 2006 (up to 15 billion barrels)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14678206/

Oil companies see big Gulf of Mexico discovery
Tests suggest huge oil field found in deep waters
Image: Oil well
Caption under image:
Chevron estimated the 300-square-mile region where its test well sits could hold between 3 billion and 15 billion barrels of oil and natural gas liquids.

Major crude discovery in Gulf?
Sept 5: NBC's Martin Savidge reports on the implications of a potential new source of oil beneath the Gulf of Mexico.

Nightly News
updated 7:12 a.m. MT, Wed., Sept . 6, 2006

WASHINGTON - A trio of oil companies led by Chevron Corp. has tapped a petroleum pool deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico that could boost the nation’s reserves by more than 50 percent. A test well indicates it could be the biggest new domestic oil discovery since Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay a generation ago.

But the vast oil deposit roughly four miles beneath the ocean floor won’t significantly reduce the country’s dependence on foreign oil and it won’t help lower prices at the pump anytime soon.

“It’s a nice positive, but the U.S. still has a big difference between its consumption and indigenous production,” said Art Smith, chief executive of energy consultant John S. Herold. “We’ll still be importing more than 50 percent of our oil needs.”

end of article
**********
Maybe there's as much oil under the ground of the Gulf of Mexico as there is water above it.

[Papa Boule]

10. Yes. The earth is like a basketball

Eventually the oil leaks out until it is deflated and if you try to dribble it it just goes Thup and sticks to the floor.

[damntexdem]

16. When the reservoir is exhausted and the pressure drops.

But his reservoir is reported to be massive. Meanwhile, an Exxon-Valdez worth of oil spills into the Gulf of Mexico every four days.

[Junkdrawer]

22. Meanwhile. a "relief" well will be drilled to tap the reservoir...

Whether or not it's purpose is:

A.) To tap the reservoir and simply relieve the pressure of the leak by working the field in a normal, profitable manner.

or

B.) Heroically attempting to hit a 5 inch target blind from miles away


I leave to the reader's common sense.

[Brother Buzz]

18. After 30,000 years the Santa Barbara seeps have developed asphalt scabs the size....

of football fields. Mother nature's asphalt scabs have reduced the flow to a mere 5,000 gallons a day.

[blogslut]

21. I'm no geologist

...but I think there's a difference between an above-ground well versus one that's deep below water.

For example, the Ixtoc I was an offshore drill site and when its wellhead blew out, the result was a "spill" that lasted for almost a year and three million barrels of crude polluting the Gulf of Mexico.

[NNN0LHI]

23. I think that is what BP is hoping for

:-(

[MiniMe]

25. Seems to me that BP is more concerned about pumping the oil up rather than stopping it

I would much rather see it going into barrels than into the Gulf, but I would much rather see it stopped totally than pumped.

[Junkdrawer]

27. It's pretty safe to say BP will do two things:

1.) Approach the leak from a cost/benefit point of view.

2.) Mount a massive PR campaign (read lie and obfuscate) to attack the "externality" of environmental damage.

[Statistical]

26. The deeper the well the more the pressure.

This is THE DEEPEST well ever drilled.

So while pressure drop could eventually slow the well it likely will take very long time.

The Mexican oil well which blew out (not as deep as this one) hadn't even slowed a year latter when it was finally capped.