Will they be able to cap the well?

[Are_grits_groceries]

I repeat. Will they be able to cap the well?

This statement should send shivers down all spines.

[AndyA]

1. Yes, and I hope this unfortunate and devastating accident prompts

Obama to rethink his off shore drilling stance.

It's not a good idea, and apparently whatever safety precautions have been designed on these rigs don't work. It's a disaster for the environment. How much more do we expect it to take?

[MadHound]

They've been unable to do it so far,

And frankly I doubt that they'll be able to. My guess is they're going to keep trying until they get this dome ready, but frankly, given that these types of domes have only been deployed in shallow waters, I don't have much faith in that either. At a mile under water, the pressure crumbles metal like a paper towel.

Sadly, I think that this is going to keep spewing oil for however long it takes them to drill side wells and pour in the concrete needed to plug the leak. Best estimates I've heard for that are "months"

I think that the Gulf, already in sad shape, is screwed.

But hey, the president thinks that we should drill even more:eyes:

[madokie]

5. Does it always have to be so black and white?

The man made a bad decision apparently and I'm sure he is well aware of it by now but lets not throw out the baby with the bath water.:hi:

[Are_grits_groceries]

7. Heh. The oily bath water .... nt

[MadHound]

9. I do hope that he realizes that it was a stupid decision on his part

I also hope that he decides to reverse course on it. We'll see. If not, well, that will be very telling, and say nothing good about the man.

[madokie]

28. I agree.

We all make mistakes and he is one of the first to admit it, first in public office that is, You and I can admit mistakes as most here can but it's the rare politician that can and does. I still believe very strongly in his leadership as I do see things getting better for us little guys around here in this part of the country. Jobs are coming back, slowly but surely. When I say surely its because I see several of the companies in our local industrial park doing big additions and thats always a good sign. When they're building out that is.

[liberal N proud]

2. If they can, How long will it take?

At 42,000 gallons per day, they are predicting 4 months if they have to drill a second well to relieve pressure.

That is nearly 4 million gallons of oil dumped into a fragile environment.

[postulater]

3. Doubt it,

I think this is their plan:

Look like they are making every effort to stop the spewing, but reluctantly let the well drain until it is dry. Get Fox news to cover it.

Spread the spill out to the beaches of Texas and Florida. Let the ones in Texas (and Louisiana) go black as some people like black beaches. Clean the beaches of Florida as people expect the Florida beaches to be really really white.

Distribute straws and pumps to locals so they can come to the Gulf and suck some oil out for personal use and resale, ... a nice cottage industry!

Once they have convinced the public of how green their company is, they will lobby for and pass a law mandating that the Gulf be drained of all that nasty salt water. Then they will replace the water with oil by drilling more wells and just letting them drain into the Gulf until it is full with oil.

They will be promoting it as a jobs bill. There will be thousands of permanent jobs cleaning sludge off the beaches of Florida for the people shipped out of Arizona. Not to mention the 11 jobs created when those rig workers died on the rig.

And they will get great tax breaks for their environmentalism.

[Kablooie]

4. Or can they bell the cat?

[SidDithers]

6. Yes...nt

Sid

[Are_grits_groceries]

8. How?? nt

[SidDithers]

14. Worst case scenario is that they have to drill 2 additional wells to relieve pressure...

and that will take months.

It may not happen soon, and it many not prevent an ecological disaster, but eventually, it will be capped.

Even Ixtoc 1 was eventually capped.

Sid

[safeinOhio]

10. It is Gods will

He is mad at the Republicans and Sarah Palin.

:sarcasm:

[malaise]

12. Then's it's gawd's drill

gawd's spill and gawd's swill heading for a coastline near someone.
Worry not - it's in his hands, oil, sludge, stench. :evilgrin:

[Are_grits_groceries]

16. Dr. Seuss

is green with envy, and so am I! Good one.

[malaise]

25. LOL

:hi:

[ladjf]

11. The means for capping any well in the event of an emergency

should have been the prime requisite to drilling the well. Further, the failsafe mechanism should be set to automatically shutdown the flow in the event that the device fails to receive a continuous
signal that the well is not encountering any problems.

[Statistical]

15. There is such a device...

however it didn't work.

They tried to trigger it manually and valve can't trip.
Either it is damaged or the oil in well is under higher pressure than the valve can exert.

Sadly there is no backup for the backup.

[ladjf]

18. If so, the design was faulty. The failure could have been avoided by

adequate research and testing which , of course, would have cut into the "bottom line" of profit.

[Statistical]

13. Ultimately they WILL cap the well the question is which method.

There are essentially four methods to stop flow of oil

1) Activate the Blowout Preventor (giant pressure valves) to seal well. This hasn't worked so far. Either the valves are damaged or the pressure of oil is greater than the valves closing pressure. If the can activate this valve it would be the best solution.



2) Drop a dome over well to cap it. The problem is this hasn't been done in water this deep before. It will take weeks to complete.

3) Drill relief well. The goal is to take pressure off main well and allow Blowout Preventor to close. Time is in months. The problem is if the Blowout Preventor is damaged this won't work.

4) If the Blowout Preventor is damaged and can't close even with pressure taken off main well then it is worst case scenario. Likely they main well will need to be collapsed.

Ultimately they will cap the well the question is which method will be successful.
1) days of spilled oil
2) weeks of spilled oil
3) months of spilled oil
4) even more months of spilled oil

[Dappleganger]

17. re: #2) They don't even have it made yet--it will take 3 months to build. nt

[Statistical]

19. Crap. Even worse. n/t

[Dappleganger]

20. 42,000 gallons per day times 3 months.

Just let that sink in. :(

[Statistical]

21. Yeah roughly 1.2 million barrels a month.

The only good news is oil companies are greedy. They don't like losing 1.2 million barrels a month ($108 million at current prices) so they have an incentive to close leak as quickly as possible.

Still the damage will be staggering. The blowout preventer valves should be recovered. The govt needs to investigate (like we do in a airline crash) exact what prevented them from closing the well.




That is why they are installed. They have no purpose except to prevent a blowout (uncontrolled release of oil).

[SidDithers]

23. 1.2 million gallons / month, not barrels...nt

Sid

[Statistical]

27. Yeah gallons not barrels. 1.2 million gallons a month is still a lot. n/t

[TransitJohn]

24. Check your math. A gallon is not a bbl.

And I don't think they want to get the BOPs off of the wellhead. The idea is to function the pipe rams in the BOPs to shut in the well.

On edit: Also, a blowout is not an uncontrolled release of oil, it's an uncontrolled release of pressure.

On further edit: And I don't think I'd function the pipe rams, but the pipe shears.

/wellsite geologist

[Statistical]

26. However the BOP didn't function properly.

This spill shouldn't have happened.

If the BOP design is defective insufficient it warrants investigation right?

I mean how many other wells around the world are "protected" with BOP that won't close the well.

[TransitJohn]

22. Yes. n/t

n/t

[Are_grits_groceries]

29. In light of the new leak, I

wonder even more.

[Duer 157099]

30. I hope it just drains the whole damn earth of all the oil

once and for all, let's just get this fucking thing over with. Oil: out of the picture (well, after the millenia of cleanup that is)