BP's "top kill" method to stanch the spill could also break it wide open

[The Straight Story]

Another Chance to Stop the Gulf Leak

But BP's "top kill" method to stanch the spill could also break it wide open.


BP is preparing to launch a procedure as early as Sunday to clog the flow of oil and gas from the month-old Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But the proposed "top kill" method is untested at the 5,000-foot depth of the spill, and could easily join the growing list of fixes thwarted by the spill's punishingly remote environment. It is also the most invasive maneuver attempted to date, and could rupture the leaking well and actually accelerate the flow of crude.

The potential environmental impact of the spewing oil picked up gravity this week when observers saw the first evidence of oil entering the loop-flow current that washes out of the Gulf and up the eastern side of the Florida panhandle. The oil threatens to foul Florida's sensitive coral reefs and its tourism economy by the end of May.

Oil containment operations simultaneously gained ground last week as BP installed a tube in the crippled mile-long riser that once linked the Deepwater Horizon rig to its seafloor wellhead. By Wednesday, the ad-hoc Riser Insertion Tube Tool was sucking 3,000 barrels of oil per day into the holding tank of a drilling vessel, cutting releases to the sea by roughly half; the vessel is also flaring off about 14 million cubic feet of captured natural gas per day.

BP's riser insertion operation marks its first real technology success after a string of high-profile failures. One early effort to suck up spilling crude--a 100-ton steel box lowered over the wellhead--jammed within hours with a frozen slurry of natural gas and seawater. This fiasco followed weeks of fruitless attempts to stimulate the blowout preventer, or BOP, that sits atop BP's crippled wellhead. Ongoing Congressional investigations last week highlighted design limitations and potential maintenance lapses involving the equipment, which the offshore industry hitherto regarded as a "fail-safe" defense against deepwater spills.

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/25359/?a=f

[barbtries]

1. the way things are going,

i (sadly) expect the worst case.

[KansDem]

2. I've got a bad feeling about this...

:(

The oil threatens to foul Florida's sensitive coral reefs and its tourism economy by the end of May. That's next week, folks!

[Junkdrawer]

3. Here's my question: IF it succeeds, will the two "relief" wells stop, or...

will they change course and become production wells that "relieve the pressure by removing the oil"?

[RC]

6. Instead of showing off how good they are at drilling holes, why don't they

concentrate on the top of the one they already have? Cut the busted pipe off and plug what's left.

And why do they think they need to go so deep to intersect the well? That is ridicules.

I get the feeling BP wants this leak to continue as long as possible.

[blindpig]

4. k&r

[customerserviceguy]

8. Ooooh, I just recognized that silhouette.

Quite the graphic there.

[blindpig]

9. Yep

Some find it inappropriate, I find it very appropriate.

[FarCenter]

5. If you suddenly stop the flow, don't you get "water hammer" on a huge scale

If you have a flow of water in a pipe and you suddenly shut it off, the momentum of the flowing water raises the pressure in the pipe and also tends to move it in the direction of the flow. So you get a bang when the flow is suddenly stopped.

Isn't there some chance that this will rupture the pipe below the blow out preventer stack, just at the seafloor?

Maybe there is a plumber around?

[flamingdem]

7. Let's hope some of Obama's people are overseeing this effort, yikes nt