Beyond annoyed at BP

[melchar]

I'm really ticked off. The 'efforts' they are making is a BP smokescreen. They NEED to seal off the volcano of oil. What BP is doing are experiments to protect their gusher for later exploitation.

So BP tries to put a big cap on the gusher with a pipe to suck out the oil. Fail. Now they are going to try a smaller, heated cap to suck out the oil. Wanna bet that's going to fail as well? If THAT doesn't work they have said they'll cram stuff down the hole in an effort to clog it [and likely get propelled cannon-like shot instead]. THEN they plan to drill a 2nd hole to 'ease the pressure'.

Are ANY of these an attempt to SEAL off the area? Of course not! Then the remorseless bast@rds wouldn't be able to get at the oil. As a result it will be months of this pissing around until they are ordered to SEAL the darned thing off and likely 20 years of the Carribean being a dying sea.

Comments

[nationelectric.livejournal.com]

AMEN.

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

You Tell It!

[nojay.livejournal.com]

So how do they seal the damaged valve gear? The Russians have had similar problems in the past; a press report quoting one Russian engineer mentioned they had five similar blowouts in deep water during the old Soviet period and they fixed four of them successfully, he said.

How? They detonated a nuke on the defective valve gear. Do you want to go with that solution in the Gulf?

The relief well drilling operation is meant to put a second bore into the drill pipe that is feeding the damaged valve gear on the sea bottom. At that point they will fill the pipe with concrete or something similar and permanently block it. It's easier for them to drill another production bore into the same oil reservoir elsewhere than try and recover the existing damaged borehole.

The plug idea might work; the oil isn't actually coming out at a great pressure but getting the plug material into the pipe is very tricky, like threading a needle in the dark at arm's length. It might only reduce the flow, not stop it altogether and it might also break the valve gear and the pipe even more, causing the flow to increase.

The heated cap to prevent methane hydrate slurries developing might work, they won't know until they try it which is what they're doing. The cost of deploying that cap might be partially offset by the oil recovered from the well subsequently but oil-rig production tends to be quite marginal in terms of costs and the extra expenses of the oil processing to remove seawater, keeping a tanker on station etc. will destroy any possible profit from the operation. All it will do is prevent the oil washing up on Gulf beaches at the rate it is expected to.

[seawasp]

I endorse the nuclear solution. Nuclear environmental damage would probably be an order of magnitude lower, and fades away on its own.

Alas, it'll never happen. I'd want pictures.

[melchar.livejournal.com]

Using a nuke would be quick and probably work. I am not terrified of saying the work 'nuclear'. Any harm done by the explosion would be tiny when compared to the damage the gushing oil has done and will continue to do.

And if not a nuke, then -seal- the problem off. Bury it under either concrete that can set at that depth/pressure, or cover the pipe itself with a cap that -doesn't- have a suck out the oil opening and then bury -that- under the aforesaid concrete. Then cover it with sealant and fill the basin around it with -more- sealant.

IMO the Russian likely have the better idea.

[seawasp]

The other advantage would be to jump-start the civilian use of nukes, and soon we could watch "Mythbusters: THE NUCLEAR SEASON" where they get to test nuclear myths.

[howeird]

I can't get up much anger over BP's inept approach to the job. My anger is directed at our governments, past and present, for not having a FEMA plan tested and in place for this kind of event, and for not requiring a containment device in place and deployable around all the rigs. And I have a hard time feeling angry about the mechanical failure of both the primary and backup safety mechanisms because sometimes things break, especially things under 5,000 feet of water pressure and who knows how much oil pressure.

And I don't think we're looking at a dying sea. Big as the spill is, the ocean is much, much bigger. It can absorb a lot and survive.