BP to Try Smaller Pipe to Stem Gulf Oil Gusher

[maddezmom]

Source: ABC

BP to Try Smaller Pipe to Stem Gulf Oil Gusher
BP officials say they have decided to first try sucking oil away from the gushing Gulf well with a tube that will be inserted into the jagged pipe leaking on the seafloor.

Company spokesman Bill Salvin said BP hopes to start moving the 6-inch tube into the leaking 21-inch pipe — known as the riser — on Thursday night. The smaller tube will be surrounded by a stopper to keep oil from leaking into the sea.

The tube will then siphon the oil to a tanker at the surface.

Salvin says engineers have to first move the smaller tube past seawater that has gotten into the riser. The seawater could mix with methane to form crystals that could clog the pipe.



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=10636606

[AndyA]

1. They really have no clue what to do. They are way over their heads.

All those environmental studies that they said didn't need to be done, because the systems they had in place were fool proof was just a lie. This is unprecedented. They obviously had no plan on how to deal with this kind of a disaster.

They should be fined a huge amount, charged with every crime they can be charged with, and forced to pay restitution and damages to EVERYONE harmed by this event.

Really, I don't think there's any way BP can survive after this. Certainly they cannot be trusted after their horrible safety record off shore as well as on land.

BP sucks. They must pay for what they have done.

[Uncle Joe]

28. It seems to me they should go in the opposite direction with a larger pipe?

It could be clamped around that pipe.

They could narrow the pipe, if need be as it goes up sort of like a reverse portable collapsible glass; that people carry in their cars.

I would think a smaller pipe would increase the pressure?

[CountAllVotes]

2. when will these asswholes

admit that they do not have any idea as to how to correct much less solve this problem? :mad: :argh:


:dem: :kick:

[Cronus Protagonist]

6. If they do that, what then?

Are you really wanting them to stop trying?

[CountAllVotes]

12. they need to call put out an international call for

something called HELP. Someone somewhere in this world must have an idea as to how to stop this from going on. They must have the knowledge somewhere to stop the leak.

If they don't have a clue there should be no more oil drilling allowed until they have answers for this and techniques readily available to stop the oil from gushing.

I am no scientist and I admittedly have no idea how to stop this but prevention could have been part of the cure if it had been in place to begin with.

:kick:

[Mark D.]

17. FINALLY

Someone else beside me saying what I've been saying for a long time now. 5150, APB, 911, EMERGENCY. A call to every available nation that can help. Their navy, their scientists, their engineers. The promise of full reimbursement for all of their help, by BP. How about a 10 million dollar reward from the US Governemnt. I don't care how. Every day, even with the low 200k gallon estimate (which some say could be far higher), is IMMEASURABLE damage to the ocean, fishing, and more. This is with the potential to become a global crisis if this takes months to stop.

If they wait until oil is washing up on their shores in Europe, it will be too late. Stop this at any cost, then pass the bill, the blame, whatever, around. It's that simple. Even cleanup efforts aren't as important as stopping it. Once its stopped, employ that 'everyone who can help' philosophy in getting non-toxic ways to clean this up. If the world can't unite to save what could be a large part of its oceans, when can it unite? Can't we do anyhing right as a people? Where is the UN? Telling us the earth will be too hot in 300 years. Great! Can it please focus on this now?

[CountAllVotes]

19. ego ego ego

this is the problem we are really facing. These poor little boys can't figure out what to do and they are afraid to let anyone know this.

We wouldn't want to damage their little egos that go along with other parts of them that are likely similarly small ... :evilgrin:

I am glad to know that I am not the only one out there that thinks we need to beg for an international solution for this and we need to CRY OUT FOR HELP no matter how hard that may be to do.

God damn them for not doing this by now, god damn all of these tiny little men hiding out and doing nothing as Rome burns!!

:kick:

[Mark D.]

37. Yep

If BP admits it has no clue, it may hurt its stocks or future viability for drilling. The US asking for help will piss off the oil lobbyists partly controlling our government. Enough of them. We are letting the the theif decide how he should be arrested. All focus must come off lawsuits, blame, and anything else. Every citizen, every scientist, every engineer, private and public, ever nations available navy, all involved totally in two simple things. HOW TO WE STOP THIS. HOW DO WE THEN IMPLEMENT OUR IDEA TO STOP IT. Then and only then, we focus 100% on how to clean it up in a non-toxic way. It's that simple, DU, raise every voice.

I'm not good at getting threads I start to appear on the front page, if the Moderator or anyone who gets threads read and popular easy can do this, please do it now. Unite the DU, get Raw Story to help, Media Matters, etc.. Get them all into a united front yelling what BP and the goverment refuses to. An APB. To the UN, to the citizens of the world. Help us, those who need help are not asking for it. But we are. We don't know how to stop this, but if we all work on it, we can. The US govt. should put a 10 billion bounty on it. The nation that solves the problem, both creating the idea and getting it put on and working, will get the bounty. Spit it if more than one get involved. Everone, please help in this.

[DURHAM D]

3. 6 inch ?

Kind of like draining a swamp with a soda straw. And, what about the gas?

[Ichingcarpenter]

34. Maybe the oil executives pipes? Wink,wink,nod,nod

We can only hope something will work and soon

[denverbill]

4. How about just trying the stopper first? n/t

[thereismore]

7. There is too much pressure. It would be blown off before it could harden. The small pipe could

work. Why don't they just clamp the riser by some hydraulic shears? It would decrease the flow...

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Just knock the pipe off and drop a HUGE bolder over the hole!

THEN try to figure out how to salvage the oil. They are spending alot of time trying to collect the oil rather than stopping the flow.

[thereismore]

8. Right. They don't seem hugely devoted to actually stopping it, just collecting most of it. nt

[AtheistCrusader]

11. Terrible idea.

This isn't some simple leak. Millions of pounds of lift. That wellhead pushed out enough pressure to destroy the oil rig itself. You're not going to plug it by dropping a rock on it.

BUT you're correct, there are measures they could be taking that are more likely to stop the flow, but aren't because it would probably render the wellhead unusable. At least, we suspect that is so.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. Ummmm

The destruction of the rig didn't happen because of the gusher itself blowing the rig out of the water, but because of the sudden rush of methane, an explosion, and a fire that burned for some time before the rig sank. From some articles I read, the rig monitoring equipment had sensed the big bubbles of methane intermittently coming up the pipe at least once or twice after they originally hit paydirt, and the systems immediately put out alerts to shut down power and require workers to refrain from any sources of ignition. This last time, the warning didn't come fast enough.

The pressure was generated because of what? Forcing x amount of substance through a "small" (in relative terms) pipe - i.e.:

PV = nRT.

where P α 1/V... the pressure increased with the decreased volume through the tube (and this doesn't even include the fact that the pressure is already high due to the 6 mile long rock tube before the stuff even reaches the top of the ocean floor from the oil pit). Widen the hole by removing the external pipe and the pressure is reduced, and then cover the hole with something extremely wide and heavy. This is not for permanence but to give time to get another solution in place while the relief well is being drilled. The boulder may rattle but it may still be able to reduce the amount spewing out. The fact that they abandoned the 3-story high container because the shunt was clogged by ice (rather than the container being lifted or "blown off" the floor due to pressure) suggested that it might be left over a hole to stop the flow into the gulf - at least temporarily.

[Codeine]

22. That will not work.

There was a fantastic thread a few days ago with a knowledgeable DUer who explained the unfeasability of that plan.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=8297500&mesg_id=8297500

[BumRushDaShow]

24. But you didn't understand what was being discussed

I have been a chemist for almost 30 years. The thing is to do something to slow or temporarily stop the belching oil and gas and the rock could act like a check valve (ball in pipe) so that at least the stuff wasn't coming out full force.

[orwell]

25. Bingo...

...we have a winner. Their priority is salvage, not containment. That should be patently obvious to everyone by now.

[louis-t]

9. I keep wondering about the economic side of this.

Remember, they were "sealing the well for future use". They would not have pumped this oil for several months or even years. There are capped wells all over the gulf. What is the impact of bringing this oil to market now? Is there enough there that could make a difference in supply or reserves? If they are able to started filling tankers, will they just leave the tankers floating somewhere offshore?

[awoke_in_2003]

39. part of me wonders...

if they didn't do this on purpose- lower supply, higher price. And, if they manage to suck it into tankers, they have to go through the process of separating what they have salvage. Extra cost, which will then be passed on to the consumer. A win-win for BP

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

10. I'm afraid ...

when all pragmatic "solutions" are tried, they will go to the Russian solution.

Nuke it! Oil and radiation. Oh, will the good times never stop rolling!

:sarcasm: on the last sentence.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

13. That may not be such a bad plan.

Simultaneously detonate 3-4 tactical small warheads AROUND the well bore to crush/collapse it.
They obviously would not be able to salvage the wellhead or well. I'm sure the BP does not want that.

Also, BP could never do this as I'm pretty sure only the military/NATO could detonate nukes.

[northernlights]

14. better to kill the entire gulf of mexico

than lose the profit$ :sarcasm:

[Mark D.]

16. Warheads = Risk

I've heard the nuke idea before. Every use in Russia was on shallow or land-based rigs. The problem is there are some saying such an explosion could open the hole more, or worse, collapse the shelf in that turns a 2-3 foot hole into a massive volcano of oil.

[Strelnikov_]

20. Yep. Open up multiple fractures. Also, the Russkies were only 4 for 5

Better odds than a BOP working, apparently. But still, way too large a risk.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

21. As Mark said ...

detonating a nuke at that depth, could cause untold damage.

I worked as an explosive "expert" in the Army, mainly with nukes.
The concussive effect under that great of a pressure, would probably fracture the surrounding seabed.
May collapse the wellhead, but the fractures would be worse, weakening the bedrock.
Explosion plus great downward pressure concentrates the concussive effects.
Given the enormous pressures, that just may unleash more that a volcano of oil, it could collapse the reservoir in its entirety.
Displacement would take care of the rest. Could be an extinction event.

What I said I meant as a warning, hoping people in power are smarter than that. Although I have my doubts.

[tridim]

27. Can a nuke even be denotated at depth?

Electronics, high explosive caps, detonation triggers.. None of which are built for high pressure. It's way too risky anyway.

How about using high explosives in 8 SMALL bores around the leak? Just enough to collapse the shaft.

[Mark D.]

36. Not a bad idea

But not good for this reason. Collapsing it mechanically would be more sensible, no detonation. We have to remember it's flammable oil and ultra-flammable methange gas, leading down to a reserve that is of unprecidented size. If the explosion follows oil and methane down the pipe into the reserve, we could be talking about a super-explosion of untold magnitude. If we survive that, we'll have an oil and methane super volcano going off after. All that to stop a 3 foot pipe leak is like blowing up a building to kill a few mosquitos inside.

[DCBob]

18. How many failed "brilliant" ideas have these idiots tried now?

Meanwhile the Gulf is becoming an oily cesspool. Sickening.

[DCBob]

23. Another delay..

HOUSTON/PORT FOURCHON, Louisiana (Reuters) – A small containment dome won't begin trapping oil from BP's leaking oil well until at least next week instead of later on Thursday, a spokesman for BP Plc said, a fresh setback in efforts to contain what could become the worst oil spill in U.S. history. London-based BP has changed its timing for placing the undersea dome meant to pump oil from the mile-deep leak to a vessel on the surface, after a company executive on Wednesday told reporters the device could be in place by late Thursday. "Probably toward the end of next week is when we will start to move it and put it over the leak," BP spokesman Jon Pack said. "So nothing particularly noteworthy is happening with that right now."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100513/ts_nm/us_oil_rig_leak

"nothing particulary noteworty"?? How about the Gulf of Mexico is being destroyed.

[jgraz]

26. We need to freeze every US asset of BP immediately.

Same for Halliburton. And the executives and board members of both companies.

[ribrepin]

33. Now you're talking

freeze their personal assets as well until the leak is fixed. Maybe they'd focus on stopping the leak instead of PR.

[Wednesdays]

29. I've got a garden hose I can lend them...it's 5/8" in diameter

Maybe that would be small enough for them to use? :shrug:

[meow mix]

30. what happened to the smaller box?

so were down to a pipe now and the box did not work??

i could not find anything in the news

[Lagomorph]

31. It took nine months to stop the last one in 1979.

I'm betting they get it done quicker this time. Just the same, it was the BOP the last time and it's the BOP this time. Same problem, with the drill collars being too thick to shear. There is no damned excuse for that.

[Canuckistanian]

32. BP should be taken OUT of the equation

It was incompetence that put us in this situation.

The same people who DEMONTRATED this incompetence shouldn't be the ones who get to SOLVE it.

Obama should call a summit of ALL major oil companies and oil service companies and DECIDE what the best course of action is. And them MANDATE the solution before ANY new drilling takes place.

Yeah, I know, I'm starry-eyed optimist.

[Javaman]

35. Does anyone else think THIS should have been the first thing they should have attempted? nt

[rug]

38. Right about now the entire BP engineering division is trying a Phelps pipe.

[atomic-fly]

40. Something like this might work.

I think you could insert one directly in the pipe, fill it with water (or cement) to inflate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn_xi4FVCfM&feature=channel