BP 'plugs' Gulf of Mexico oil well

[cory777]

Source: AFP

NEW ORLEANS (AFP) - A procedure to permanently plug a ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico has achieved the "desired outcome," BP said Wednesday.

"The well pressure is now being controlled by the hydrostatic pressure of the drilling mud, the desired outcome of the static kill procedure," the company said in a statement.

The procedure involved pumping heavy drilling fluid, known in the trade as mud, into the busted well to push leaking crude oil back into its source rock.

The apparent success came 106 days after a devastating explosion aboard the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20 unleashed the biggest oil spill in history.



Read more: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/100804/world/us_oil_environment_pollution

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Breaking News http://activistnews.blogspot.com

[aquart]

1. Then why am I still holding my breath?

[WillParkinson]

2. Because you've heard it before?

I know I'm not buying it right now either.

I'm hoping for the best outcome. I'm fearing the worst.

[Hissyspit]

3. It might be/start leaking somewhere else?

[dipsydoodle]

5. Not if they plug the bottom

using the relief wells which hopefully will happen soon too.

BP will be able to plug the well from the top if the operation is successful. For a permanent seal, the company still needs to complete a relief well, National Incident Commander Thad Allen said at a Houston press conference.

Government scientists issued revised estimates on Aug. 2 that the well spewed 4.9 million barrels, making it the largest accidental maritime oil spill. About 800,000 barrels was captured by BP, and some was skimmed or burned. Scientists expect to quantify within days how much oil remains in the Gulf, potentially in underwater plumes, Allen said.

“There’s still residual oil out there,” he said. “Our intention is to size our force based on the requirements -- how much oil is out there and how much do we have to recover.”

Evaporated, Dispersed

The New York Times reported today that three-quarters of the oil leaked from the well has evaporated, dispersed, or been recovered. The remaining oil is so diluted that it doesn’t represent much of a risk for the Gulf, the paper said, citing a government report due to be released today.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-04/bp-begins-effort-to-kill-gulf-of-mexico-well-that-caused-record-oil-spill.html

[Baclava]

8. Still another week away for the bottom kill.

"In the static kill operation, it's still unclear whether the mud will be followed by cement, according to BP Senior Vice President Kent Wells. Engineers will evaluate that as they proceed. They may decide to wait until a relief well is completed in an accompanying well-killing effort known as a "bottom kill" -- intended to serve as an insurance policy that the well is sealed. That could happen about a week from now."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/08/04/gulf.oil.spill/index.html

[dipsydoodle]

11. Interesting note in that link

"The Environmental Protection Agency is likely to face questions about its finding that eight dispersants, including one used in combating the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, are no more toxic when mixed with oil than the oil alone.

Paul Anastas, the EPA assistant administrator for research and development who reported test results earlier this week, will be the lead witness in the Senate hearing. He said the tests prove that the oil itself, not the dispersants, is "enemy No. 1"

I wasn't aware that dispersants actually mix with oil anyway - just separate it. Another link to the same subject here.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/08/03/epa-on-oil-dispersants-no-more-toxic-than-oil-alone/

If confirmed then that agrees with UK findings on the use of Corexit : not harmful to marine life at sea but rocky shore use prohibited without special consent. The rock shore bit is because it prevents limpets etc attaching to rock thus making them open to prey from predators.

[Kolesar]

15. Gotta watch out for our little pals in the sea

[Baclava]

16. You ever read the MSDS for Corexit dispersants? (Material Safety Data Sheet)

It's all here, if you believe their own recommendations:

A newer Corexit recipe dubbed the "9500 formula"

http://www.lmrk.org/corexit_9500_uscueg.539287.pdf

11. TOXICOLOGICAL INFORMATION
No toxicity studies have been conducted on this product.

OCCUPATIONAL EXPOSURE LIMITS :
Exposure guidelines have not been established for this product.

older recipe

http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/posted/2931/Corexit_EC9527A_MSDS.539295.pdf

CHRONIC TOXICITY DATA :
The principal health effects following acute exposure to 2-butoxyethanol are irritation of the eyes and respiratory
tract. 2-butoxyethanol is readily absorbed through the skin. In laboratory animals exposed to 2-butoxyethanol via
inhalation, blood(hemolysis) and secondary effects on the kidney and liver have been observed. When 2-
butoxyethaol is ingested it is metabolized to butoxyacetic acid (BAA), which can cause hemolysis. BAA is rapidly
excreted in urine in animals and humans with an urinary excretion half-life of approximately 3-6 hours in humans.
Human red blood cells have been shown to be significantly less sensitive to hemolysis than those of rodents and
rabbits. These effects are transient and when exposure is discontinued, these effects subside. 2-butoxyethanol does
not cause adverse reproductive or birth effects in animals, unless exposures occur at levels high enough to induce
significant maternal toxicity.

HUMAN HAZARD CHARACTERIZATION :
Based on our hazard characterization, the potential human hazard is: High

BIOACCUMULATION POTENTIAL
Based on a review of the individual components, utilizing U.S. EPA models, this material is not expected to
bioaccumulate.

ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARD AND EXPOSURE CHARACTERIZATION
Based on our hazard characterization, the potential environmental hazard is: Moderate
Based on our recommended product application and the product's characteristics, the potential environmental
exposure is: Low

Nalco even made a spiffy home video to show how dispersants work - in the lab. Nobody knows what millions of gallons will do to the gulf.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orjr233TRVw

[dipsydoodle]

17. 2-butoxyethanol also happens to be used in baby wipes

quite aside from numerous other household products : http://householdproducts.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/household/brands?tbl=chem&id=167

Its a matter of degree same as many other things. I'd happily put my hands in a bucket of water containing a cup full of bleach but wouldn't do so with neat bleach.

Even distribution thoughout the Gulf of the entire amount of Corexit used workes out to 1 part / 20,000,000 of water. :shrug:

[Baclava]

19. So you're buying that "the solution to pollution is dilution"

Isn't that why we dumped all our garbage and toxic wastes in the sea to begin with? Still not a great idea.

We'll see.

the oil trackers have it breaking up on the surface


WFSFCS hindcast and forecast surface trajectories for Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill



http://ocg6.marine.usf.edu/~zheng/research/Oilspill/index.html

[dipsydoodle]

22. I'm not buying anything

and not judging the issue either. I simply stated facts. I think you might also find you've posted a picture of oil distribution - not dispersant.

[Baclava]

25. It's the oil slick we've been watching for months - I never said it was the dispersants

I move around



BP press release

MC252 Well Reaches Static Condition; Well Monitoring Underway
Release date: 04 August 2010

BP announced today that the MC252 well appears to have reached a static condition -- a significant milestone. The well pressure is now being controlled by the hydrostatic pressure of the drilling mud, which is the desired outcome of the static kill procedure carried out yesterday (US Central time).

Pumping of heavy drilling mud into the well from vessels on the surface began at 1500 CDT (2100 BST) on August 3, 2010 and was stopped after about eight hours of pumping. The well is now being monitored, per the agreed procedure, to ensure it remains static. Further pumping of mud may or may not be required depending on results observed during monitoring.

A relief well remains the ultimate solution to kill and permanently cement the well. The first relief well, which started May 2, has set its final 9 7/8-inch casing. Operations on the relief wells are suspended during static kill operations. Depending upon weather conditions, mid-August is the current estimate of the most likely date by which the first relief well will intercept the Macondo well annulus, and kill and cement operations commence.

[dipsydoodle]

26. Thanks for that

I'd have more faith in the well being plugged from the bottom than the mud whatever which has been used for now.

[Igel]

27. Paracelsus.

"Alle Ding' sind Gift, und nichts ohn' Gift; allein die Dosis macht, daß ein Ding kein Gift ist."
"All things are poison and nothing is without poison, only the dose permits something not to be poisonous." (Thanks to Wiki.)

Commonly reduced to "The dose makes the poison."

That's all he's saying. Corexit at low levels is nearly harmless; therefore it's not poison. Whether it counts as pollution isn't to be decided a priori but based on effect and whether it occurs naturally. It's digestible; it's food for some Gulf bacteria, who've evolved to digest what apparently must be termed "naturally occurring pollution." Those things that aren't obviously naturally occurring also should be rather unstable in aqua.

This is to be countered against the idea of false purity. The oil is really nasty, not just because of its chemical but also its physical properties--some of the latter also make it fairly durable. Dispersants don't make it more toxic but sharply mitigate one physical property that makes it nasty, making it less durable. Since it's less durable the chemical properties might well be mitigated because the chemicals won't be around as long. (Duration of exposure is one thing that makes methyl mercury worse than ethyl mercury when consumed by humans: Et Hg is quickly excreted, Me Hg stays in the body longer to do more damage.)

I have some of the ingredients of Corexit sitting around my house. One bears warning labels. The rest don't.

[Celebration]

24. I heard a sea captain say

That the reason Corexit was approved was because of unacceptable and dangerous levels of methane. Things were really explosive out there and the Corexit was used not so much for dispersing the oil, but as a safety measure for the methane gas. We couldn't be told that because it would cause panic.

[Igel]

28. That strikes me as utterly specious. n/t

[Kolesar]

10. I would expect high pressures at the lower, "relief" well location

And would expect the gas and oil to start spewing out there. Otherwise, I don't see how this month's operation is different than the previous "top kill".

Perhaps the pressure is much less than it was several months ago and the wily well is easier to contend with now.

[DCBob]

13. The havent completed the relief well and they may not need to if this technique works..

The "static kill" operation could be used to permanently seal the well. Its different from "top kill" in that the oil flow was stopped and the cap prevented the heavy mud from spewing out the top.

[Denzil_DC]

18. The relief well will definitely be used for bottom kill

But retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government's point man for the spill, made it clear that to be safe, the gusher will have to be plugged up from two directions. He said the 18,000-foot relief well that BP has been drilling over the past three months will be used later this month to execute a "bottom kill," in which mud and cement will be injected into the bedrock 2½ miles below the sea floor.

There should be no ambiguity about that," Allen said. "I'm the national incident commander and this is how this will be handled."

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/08/initial_data_suggests_static_k.html

[DCBob]

23. ok.. looks like the Admiral is taking charge here..

which is good.

[DCBob]

9. You do realize there are thousands of similarly plugged wells in the Gulf?

about 27,000 to be exact.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/9/report_27_000_abandoned_wells_pose

[truthisfreedom]

4. Reassuring words are reassuring words. Nothing more. Time will tell.

Everything else is bullshit.

[JDPriestly]

6. Unfortunately, the press is not allowed to view the damage done to the

beaches and animals in the areas in which the spill has come to shore and made an impact, so we don't really know how much environmental damage was done.

BP needs to level with the public on this. And they need to pay all the bills presented to them that are at all reasonably related to the spill they caused.

[DCBob]

7. Hallelujah!!

:bounce: :woohoo: :applause:

[madrchsod]

12. alright! it`s finally over....

now the media can finally stop reporting all that bad news from the gulf. the story was getting a bit stale.

it`s time to find something new to distract the american public from our misery......

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

14. It's not over, not even close

The well has stopped adding new oil to the gulf, so we can assess the full scope of the damage. There is plenty of bad news left, but you're right: the media can stop reporting it.

:cry:

[robcon]

21. It's good news, not bad news, for the most part.

The worst prediction were dead wrong, and I'm glad they were.

[mike r]

20. This is like: Eighty Percent Of Al-Qaeda No. 2s Now Dead

Eighty Percent Of Al-Qaeda No. 2s Now Dead
February 1, 2006 | ISSUE 42•05
WASHINGTON, DC - The Pentagon announced Monday that 80 percent of Osama bin Laden's seconds-in-command have been eliminated. "Nearly 1,600 al-Qaeda leaders ranked number two have been wiped out," Lt. Col. Mark Allison said. "That leaves only 400 of Osama bin Laden's right-hand men in the organization." Following the apparent failure to kill bin Laden's No. 2 man Ayman al-Zawahri in a missile strike on a Pakistani border town on Jan. 13, American forces intensified the search for al-Qaeda second-in-command Ahmed Al-Zahnami, or, failing that, No. 2 man Amman al-Zaharani, or No. 2 man Ahmed al-Zafarani.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/eighty-percent-of-alqaeda-no-2s-now-dead,5159/