Ideas to stop the flow of oil in the gulf.

[john]

Yesterday gCaptain broke the story of BP asking YOU to help come up with ideas to stop the flow of oil in the gulf. Apparently we hit a nerve as one of the world's top blogs, Techcrunch, picked up the story.

So the Question is: What is your idea for closing in the well?

And the consequences are dire as we find a solution before America resorts to taking advice from the russians.

[cmjeff]

This forum has, by far, the most intellegent analysis of any site I've seen including the most respected names in news... And not one idea posted to this thread?? We are in trouble.

[ghorouter]

They cut off and set a valve on the DP sicking out of the riser. Would it have made sense to connect to that from topside and possible pulled what the straw is getting now? DP is likely broken but that is still upstream from the open riser.
If they started a draw via that DP they could then dump a wet barite slug (no gel) to settle and plug up the broken riser. This would minimize the seawater intrusion.
If they can keep the riser negative via DP and even the straw also they might eliminate the other leaks in the riser kinks.

[jimbo1257]

instead of trying to plug the pipe, could you not insert a catheter into the pipe as they do in surgery. i had a hip replacement several years ago and had one. considering the depth of the water and the pressures of the deep consider it like this. a pipe with a rubber bladder around the outside of the pipe, in which it is inserted into the broken pipe so that the rubber bladder is inside like a seal, complete the seal by filling the bladder with water thus eliminating the use of air, the pipe is then connected to a hose that can control the flow, allowing it to be turned off.

[richard8000milesaway]

the russians are crazy, but not so very off the mark. a large enough subterranean explosion would indeed collapse the hole and likely plug the leak. should we consider it a last ditch effort if nothing else works???

[Tim]

the russians are crazy, but not so very off the mark. a large enough subterranean explosion would indeed collapse the hole and likely plug the leak. should we consider it a last ditch effort if nothing else works???

+1 (Sounds good to me!)

[seadawg]

worst case scenario..don't mean to sound like chicken little with the sky falling here..the reality is there most likely insufficient time to deal effectively with this catastrophe..the only viable solution is a relief well..the rest is BULL SHIT-"JUNK SHOT" of the first order..hope I am wrong..doubt enough will be cleaned up let alone shutting the flow down before a hurricane manages to stir up the gulf and surge this mess ashore turning much of the GoM coastline into one toxic waste land..someone please tell me I'm full of shit!!

[CMA_Decky]

someone please tell me I'm full of shit!!

You're full of shit.


Thank me late...

[admin]

Build a containment cylinder around the damaged pipe and then build up toward the surface while pumping from the inside while we build up. might require underwater weilding which is dangerous. what do i know i just clean carpets and fish. Submitted by Conrad Arevalo - Conrad_Arevalo@yahoo.com

[skycowboy]

Stuff Nancy Pelosi and Harry Ried in the hole...

[Shellback]

Stuff Nancy Pelosi and Harry Ried in the hole...

Why stop with just those two?

[steelbeach]

Drilling an intercept well was supposedly the first order from day one.
The steel overcap was a "Red Herring" to assuage the press and others .
The original skinny was the Horizon would take this job but it would take awhile to do properly - thus the steel monster
I've lost comms. with my shipmate aboard so don't know the latest.
It's a good bet panic reigns in the E-board meetings so lets not expect any common sense solutions.
The "top-kill" was prompted by the feds to do something for the P.R. squadron.

[bnhpr]

Cut the riser off above the LMRP, lift it up with DD2's #7 winch (modified for subsea work by BP in 2005)
Cut the fish off (drillpipe in the riser) and set the above to the side in the mud.
Hook DD2's winch back up to the Horizon's LMRP with ROV's
Drill holes in a slick joint of riser, and fit a blanking plate above them.
Unlatch the LMRP connector with an ROV, lift the LMRP onto the port side of the DD2 and backload to a boat.
Latch the DD2 stack (recently changed to a H4 connector) to profile on the Horizon stack, with wellbore opened.
With the vented and blanked riser joint, the well will continue to divert to the ocean.
Close the DD2 stack, kill the well, wait for the intervention well to cement her up.
Recover the stacks.

just what I heard in the smoke shack...

[richard8000milesaway]

as i wrote above a few days ago: "the russians are crazy, but not so very off the mark. a large enough subterranean explosion would indeed collapse the hole and likely plug the leak. should we consider it a last ditch effort if nothing else works??? "

comments??

[buccaneer]

Sounds Like some one should have done that right after the rig went down certainly a good Idea and running out of time fast with the season coming.

[unitypaloma]

Why not use " bentonite" "clay" ?

Yesterday gCaptain broke the story of BP asking YOU to help come up with ideas to stop the flow of oil in the gulf. Apparently we hit a nerve as one of the world's top blogs, Techcrunch, picked up the story.

So the Question is: What is your idea for closing in the well?

And the consequences are dire as we find a solution before America resorts to taking advice from the russians.

[jerror]

You could actually use two smaller explosions and different levels of depth that would have more predictable results.

The biggest argument against such as action is that if the pressure is sufficient to leach through the sand rock silt or whatever is down there after the explosivies are used to shear substrate and "bend the pipe" then the only thing that will stop it is when it all leaks out.

Controlling the flow is a better option still, even as this approaches landmark levels of failure by a company that seems to have reached to high on the apple tree... Where was the government oversight? You can't just blame BP, we need to put those politicians responsible for allowing this on trial or with will happen again. Just like the lending practices that lead to the market crash... people are always going to extend their reach to make a buck you cant get rid of greed. The biggest politicians pointing the finger at wall street in the case of bad lending practices are the real ones to blame, as will be analogous to this catastrophe.

[Bob3231]

Does anybody know for sure whether or not a mixture of natural gas and oil would burn underwater?

With a sufficient ignition source , is an underwater blowtorch feaseable?

[capitanahn]

OK, we all must show we are damn good old sea dogs ; there were many ways to plug the hole in the shell platings. The one of the last way was ;

umbrella like structure was fabricated, we push the thing into the hole and open it. The pressure of seawater when applied to the fabric that closed the hole and leaking reduced somewhat and we welded the steel plates between frames and the bottom plate in place (already cut along the the specs of the two frames)..etc and poured the quick cement and sand mix into it..

Now, the hole on the earth can be plugged up by similiar way ; but this time we got to consider the enormous pressure, so the fabrication should be hidden inside of pipe-like structure in order to push it precisely into the hole and once it's in there, we open the umbrella to close the leak.

Of course the fabric (or whatever the right materials) should be the one that can withstand the pressure of gushing oil.
Once the pressure diminishes, we can pour the cement on top of that like DP tried with mud.

[Mr 100-ton]

This should work