Relief Well Works
How A Relief Well Works.
First, there is no other proven technology that will kill this gusher.
The relief well has to be angle drilled down to the roof of the hydrocarbon formation.
This well is 25,000 feet down I do believe, significantly deeper than their permitted 18,000 feet.
Once they get down there. They have to hit the bore of the gusher, a target 7 inches in diameter at that depth. Once they intercept the target, they pump in heavy "mud".
The mud is actually barium sulfate, and they will fill the bore of the gusher from the bottom up. Once the bore is full of the heavy mud, the weight stops the flow of oil.
When the gusher is stopped, they inject cement to plug the whole works. The relief well is not used to divert oil or extract oil... It gets plugged at the same time as the gusher.
Drilling and hitting the target, pumping in mud... Takes 3-6 months here, they have been drilling for about 3 weeks now and have a second rig in for about a week.
Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Response
~ rich mist
Deep-water Horizon Oil Rig: The First 36 Hours
It is out of his control, no matter what he has done or will do. The predicament he's in could be prevented for the future, given time, but there's a pervasive culture in this country which drives the concept that government can be nothing but incompetent and that attitude CAUSES government to be incompetent. Although it's not really government incompetence or impotence which has anything to do with the inability to plug the gushing well, it is the culture of government regulatory incompetence which permitted BP to drill and cap the well incompetently.
Government regulation of industries which have a clearly obvious potential for the creation of catastrophic disasters is an absolute necessity, but that regulation won't work when those who direct them have no desire to implement regulations. And it is the American people who are ultimately to blame for this disaster - for electing people who believe that government can (or should) stay out of the way of such potentially destructive corporations and do nothing to prevent disaster before the fact. Essentially, this mess was NOT an 'accident'. It was business as usual: drill for the gold as cheaply and quickly as possible and let people who give a damn, clean up any mess afterward.
~ Martel
I had been thinking about how to drill safely offshore, and doubt it's possible. But one idea may be to have a regular rig and a sister rig near the drill site.
As of now, BP is drilling two relief wells.
Since you have an idea about where the oil may be in terms of depth when you begin drilling and will learn more about the subsea earth as you drill, why not drill the main well--and at the same time drill a preemptive relief well, but stop the relief well at about 1000 feet of intersection.
That way if there were a problem with the actual well, the relief well could be finished in a matter of days not weeks/months to stanch the flow...also, no cementing or sealing may be needed for the relief well if it is never needed and hence, never intersects with the main one...
~ polishlogician
This is required for offshore drilling in Canada. Your idea has a great deal of merit.
~ keramos
Really...I didn't know that....a quick Google search shows that this idea was apparently mentioned on "Countdown" in relation to Canada, and that BP is trying to avoid such a preemptive relief well, citing it as "too expensive".
~ polishlogician
A top BP worker who was aboard the Deepwater Horizon in the hours leading up to the explosion declined to testify in front of a federal panel investigating the deadly oil rig blowout, telling the U.S Coast Guard he was invoking his constitutional right to avoid self-incrimination.
The move Wednesday by BP's Robert Kaluza raises the possibility of criminal liability in the April 20 explosion that killed 11 and five weeks later continues to spew hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico each day.
~ rich misty
BP worker takes 5th, making prosecution a possibility
Cheney belongs in jail for his complicity in removing protections and lowering the bar for inspections that would have prevented this type of disaster. Bush put Cheney in charge of a task force on energy in 2001. Cheney invited oil execs to serve on the committee and allowed them to basically write their own regulations. When consumers asked Cheney about this task force-he refused to answer any questions. He was sued by consumer groups to release info on those meetings but the Bush Corporate Supreme Court backed Cheney.
Finally, in 2005 Senate Hearings looked into the special deals the Bush/Cheney had underhandedly given to the oil companies. Four of the five oil company executives denied serving on that task force despite evidence to the contrary.
One did acknowledge it had served on Cheney's task force.
Why, it was BP America.
Here is the record of that exchange:
At the Senate hearing, five executives were asked: "Did your company or any representatives of your companies participate in Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001?"
"No," said Raymond (Exxon Mobil).
"No," said O'Reilly (Chevron Chairman).
"We did not, no," Mulva said (ConocoPhillips).
"To be honest, I don't know," said BP Chief Executive Ross Pillari. "I wasn't here then."
"But your company was here," Lautenberg replied.
"Yes," Pillari said.
"Not to my knowledge," said John Hofmeister (Shell Oil President).
~ wonderfulLife
Document Says Oil Chiefs Met With Cheney Task Force
As a side note: Those executives are not vulnerable to charges of perjury; committee Democrats had protested the decision by Commerce Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) not to swear in the executives. But a person can be fined or imprisoned for up to five years for making "any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation" to Congress.
Is it surprising that a Republican from Alaska would make sure Oil Execs were not going to be held accountable? Since Bush was still in office in 2005-these hearings didn't result in a single charge and both Cheney and the oil executives got off without so much as a blip on the screen.
~ wonderfulLife
Thank God! At least Obama has finally steamed over the worst catastrophe we have had yet at human devising--and the people responsible were supposed government regulators who simply acted out the "ancient" roles. It was a "revolving door" in which oil company officials became regulatory officials and regulated what their own owners dictated. A big fox in a huge hen-house--except that eggs and feathers are not at all to be compared to 20 miles of sludge 300 feet thick alive and still growing all brought to us by the hands and hearts of BP.
China executes executives who defraud "The People" of large sums—and here too, this kind of attack upon actual lives and our treasures merits execution in my books not the bland and endless rhetoric of sociopathic executives standing at attention and swearing oaths for truth in front of Congress with our without the Bible .James McCormick, in disgust oaths
~ JAMES GORMAN
Source:
Gulf Oil Spill Now Far Worse Than Exxon Valdez, Worst In U.S. History, Scientists Say