Gulf coast oil spill

[squirell nutkin]

Originally Posted by glatt

But how to you cut off the stream from a fire hose nozzel?

There are a number of plumbing tricks to cap water gushing from pipes, whether they would scale up is another question.

One device is a valve with a barbed fitting that slips over a pipe while the valve is open. once it is in place the valve is closed. The greater the pressure the deeper the barb grabs.



Another technique is to cut threads around the outside of the pipe, screw an open valve on and then close the valve. Like shutting off a hose with a nozzle:


There are a couple more possibilities.

[tw]

Originally Posted by squirell nutkin

There are a number of plumbing tricks to cap water gushing from pipes, whether they would scale up is another question.

Which was not easily done even on the surface where everything is easy.

A company in Western PA could not cap a gushing methane gas well for half a day - on the surface where everything is easy.

Appreciate what has happened. Deep sea drilling used to be a few hundred feet of water. A 2008 record is 8000 feet (by Deepwater Horizon). We are tapping reservoirs that we really do not understand. 5000 and 18,000 feet under the ocean, then another 10,000 or 20,000 feet into the earth. These pressures are not the trivial stuff seen in western PA. We really do not know how massive these pressures could spike to - the kick. Did you read every number like it was necessary to have a hard-on? You must.

A BlowOut Preventer designed to standards for oil wells 10 and 15 years ago may no longer be sufficient for 'kicks' that occur 18,000 feet below a mile of ocean. That kick that destroyed Deepwater Horizon may mean we are no longer using strong enough technology. We have little experience at these depths. (Brazilians at 18,000 to the bottom should pay attention.)

BP is famous for taking short cuts. Why was BP pushing so fast to get this well done? Because BP shortcuts on a previous well caused the drill head to break off. Therefore Deepwater Horizon had to abandon two weeks of drilling and start all over again. So BP wanted to "make up for lost time". Time that was lost because BP was pushing for short cuts - caused Deepwater Horizon to drill too fast.

We have little idea if current technologies are strong enough for fluids and gases this deep - under such higher pressures. And we know BP did nothing - no experiments - built no emergency response tools - tested nothing - for failures at this depth.

What do we know? This entire failure is directly traceable to the attitudes, direction, philosophy, and demands imposed from the highest levels of BP management. BP was driven first and foremost by profit - not the product. Same pressures that killed so many workers in a BP TX refinery. Same pressures that stopped routine maintenance on the Alaska pipeline resulting in multiple failures.

BP had no knowledge of what to do. Exxon had to teach BP where to put dispersants. A cap that BP said they had instead took three weeks to design and build. Because no caps existed. And then failed due to basic thermodynamic principles that would have been learned had BP tested this equipment years ago - as BP claimed.

Trying to recommend a solution is a fool's errand. It really mocks the intelligence of people who are desperately trying to solve this - despite BP management.

This well will be leaking all summer. Even today, new numbers are leaking out for the real size of this flow. Once the company is honest, then we will learn it was always between 1 million and 3 million gallons every day.

But I could be wrong now. I also said "Mission Accomplished" was more like $400 billion (when the popular opinion spin by propaganda experts said it would be $2billion). The actual cost was closer to $1trillion. Is this leak greater than 3 million gallons per day? (Navy skimmer boats recover a massive 1200 gallons in each load.)

Now let's add another fact that nobody is discussing. What is a dispersant? A chemical that connects each molecule of water to a molecule of oil. It does nothing to eliminate that oil. Puts it at various depths in the ocean. Simply makes an oil slick appear smaller. Dispersants are promoted by propaganda as a solution - which it is not. The oil is still there. Just spread out more.

[wolf]

I am too lazy to check upstream to see if anyone else has already posted this amusing photograph.