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Deepwater Horizon: Top kill fails

BP’s latest efforts to staunch the flow of oil from its ruptured wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico have failed.

The ‘top kill’ operation – pumping drilling mud into the leaking well – was followed by a ‘junk shot’ to force debris into fissures in the pipe. Neither attempt worked.

BP’s chief operations officer, Doug Suttles, admitted: “We have not been able to stop the flow … This scares everybody, the fact that we can’t make this well stop flowing, the fact that we haven’t succeeded so far.” (The Guardian)

The company now hopes that robot subs can slice through the damaged pipe and place a containment cap over the undersea gusher (BBC).

But the procedure has never been attempted at that depth, and the flow could now continue until August, when relief wells are due to be drilled. “We are prepared for the worst,” said Carol M. Browner, President Obama’s climate change and energy policy adviser (New York Times) – a comment which some media are already interpreting as an admission that the Deepwater Horizon spill is now America’s worst environmental disaster.

Comments

  1. Report this comment

    gaetano marano said:

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    the TRUE REALITY of facts is that…

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    BP wants only to save its OIL and the WELLHEAD rather than save the Gulf’s SEA

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    the US government don’t take control of the crisis to leave the entire responsibility on the BP’s head…

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    all websites, newspapers and TVs Press want a very long Gulf crisis to have a war-like “top story” to talk about for many months more…

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    the environmentalists are very happy to see a long and giant disaster in the Gulf because it’s big and free advertising in support of their thesis against the oil and in favour of renewable energy sources…

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    that’s the reasons why NO ONE of them wants to adopt, use, suggest, impose, promote, review, talk about the MANY simpler, cheaper and FASTER ways to STOP the oil spill in a few DAYS, like (e.g.) these:

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    https://www.ghostnasa.com/posts2/070oilspillsolution.html

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  2. Report this comment

    Yuri said:

    Lower an hydraulic press, powerful enough to deformate the riser pipe to a point where the internal walls of the pipe touch each other. You would have reduced drastically the area through which the oil is flowing, and the flow rate shall be reduced. It will be much easier to capture that reduced flow of oil, than the current 19,000 BPD. DO NOT CUT THE RISER yet, for Christ’s sake !!

  3. Report this comment

    Chaim Scheff said:

    Deepwater Horizon: How to Shutoff the Oil Geyser.

    (Instead of top kill with heavy mud – use liquid Nitrogen to freeze it shut!)

    Our most instant FIX for the ongoing “Deepwater Horizon” environmental catastrophe is:

    (1) On the ocean floor, where there is preferably the largest oil outflow, insert a

    “rigid pipe” – at the angle of easiest penetration into the ocean floor. [The best

    place to do this is into the broken top of the broken “Deepwater Horizon” drilling

    pipe – if that is possible.]

    (2) Prepare a semi-rigid hose, capable of holding high pressure air and capable of

    retaining structural integrity under ultra-low temperatures. The length of the hose

    should be greater than the distance between the ocean floor and the layer of

    stratigraphy [rock strata] capable of holding the oil below it.]

    (3) Attach a drilling head to one end of the hose. The drilling head should be

    capable of cutting through the “Deepwater Horizon” drilling pipe. [Preparation

    should be made for the “instant” detachment of the head from the hose – as is

    necessary in step (7).]

    (4) Through the “rigid pipe”, insert the drilling head and the attached hose; to the

    length of the “rigid pipe”.

    (5) Activate the drilling head, by pumping high pressure air into the hose, and then

    slowly force further sections of hose down through the “rigid pipe”. [Now, the

    drilling head will follow the path of least resistance, which happens to be down

    into the Deepwater Horizon” drilling pipe. The major obstacle for the drilling head

    is to cut through deformed sections of the broken “Deepwater Horizon” drilling

    pipe.]

    (6) Continue feeding the hose down into the “rigid pipe” until either the hose get

    stuck or the head is below the preferred rock strata depth.

    (7) Mechanically or explosively detach the drilling head from the hose.

    (8) Switch from pumping high pressure air into the hose to pumping liquid Nitrogen

    into the hose. [This will cause there to form a frozen plug of oil around the

    bottom of the hose.] THIS SHOULD SHUT OFF THE OIL GEYSER Continue

    pumping liquid Nitrogen down into the hose, until any of steps (9), (10), or (11)

    are accomplished.

    (9) Now, if this depth is below the preferred rock strata depth, then one may

    substantially repeat steps (1) through (6) in order to place a large explosive

    charge above the frozen plug of oil. Detonation of this explosive will bring the

    weight of the strategraphy-above down onto the plug – sealing the oil in the

    layers below.

    (10) If this depth is not below the preferred rock strata depth, then one may

    substantially repeat steps (1) through (7) in order to place a frozen plug at the

    preferred depth.

    (11) . If neither steps (9) nor (10) can be accomplished, then just keep

    pumping liquid Nitrogen, until sufficient relief wells can become operational.

  4. Report this comment

    Rodrigo A. Arreola Barroso said:

    The fact that authorities claim they are prepared for the worst on this matter and settling for an August staunch in case the robots fail is quite disturbing. Firstly because when the spill reaches the Gulf Stream it might become not only America’s worst environmental disaster, but the world worst since it may reach an extremely extensive area after that, killing millions of organisms and putting an end to the water conditions that make life possible in the Northern Atlantic. Additionally, accommodating policies from the government born from a possible fear of a future shortage in the oil supply, reflect the urgency of finding new alternatives for fossil fuels and that big transnationals interests are closer to the heart of politicians than are the needs of our planet and its people.

  5. Report this comment

    Timothy M. Barton said:

    What is the vertical rock strata footage (depth)that deepwater well had to drill to encounter the oil bearing strata

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