Department of Energy: Segments of Oil Well Casing Violently Ejected Upwards Into the Blowout Prevent

[RedEarth]

Oil industry expert Matt Simmons has said for many weeks that the well casing was destroyed by the initial explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig. He said that when oil wells blow out, the casing often shoots up above ground.


He has been ridiculed by many because no one has seen well casing on the seafloor.


But the Department of Energy has just partly exonerated Simmons. As the Los Angeles Times notes today:


A team of scientists from the Energy Department discovered a new twist: Their sophisticated imaging equipment detected not one but two drill pipes, side by side, inside the wreckage of the well's blowout preventer on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

BP officials said it was impossible. The Deepwater Horizon rig, which drilled the well, used a single pipe, connected in segments, to bore 13,000 feet below the ocean floor. But when workers cut into the wreckage to install a containment cap this month, sure enough, they found two pipes.

The discovery suggested that the force of the erupting petroleum from BP's well on April 20 was so violent that it sent pipe segments hurtling into the blowout preventer, like derailing freight cars.

......

the New York Times reported yesterday:


BP and government officials are now talking about a long-term containment plan to pump the oil to an existing platform should the relief well effort fail. While such a failure is considered highly unlikely, the contingency plan is the latest sign that with this most vexing of engineering challenges — snuffing a gusher 5,000 feet down in the gulf — nothing is a sure thing.

Experts said it was conceivable that the “kill” procedure would not be effective, particularly if only a single relief well was used and the bottom of the well bore was damaged in the initial blowout. Pumping large quantities of erosive mud into the well could even end up damaging the well further, hindering later efforts to seal it.


.....more

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/06/secretary-of-energy-steven-chu-confirms.html

[Lochloosa]

1. This is really bad news. If the "bottom" kill method does not work

there is nothing, short of blowing up the well, that will stop this.

[jaxx]

3. Go read the oil drum today, it talks about this.

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6674#comments_top

You have to go down through some comments but there aren't many up yet so it won't take long.

[SidDithers]

2. Are they're conflating the well shaft with the riser?...

the well shaft under the BOP is a single pipe with layers of concrete supports. The riser pipe above the BOP was always a pipe within a pipe. Picture after it was cut by "Jaws" here:



You can clearly see the 21" riser pipe squished flat, and the drill pipe inside of it.

Sid

[csziggy]

5. The Oil Drum has a picture of the possible two pipes inside the cut off riser

On this thread: http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6579

There was a lot of speculation that it could have been a larger drill pipe that squashed into a figure 8, making it look like two pipes. One of the cut off sections was taken up to the surface a couple of weeks ago, maybe to examine to see if there was a section of pipe ejected upwards. From the link in the OP, it is not clear if their blog entry is still just speculation on that point or if there is confirmation that the drill pipe broke and was partially ejected.

I have not had time to keep up with The Oil Drum posts to see if they know which it is.

Today's thread, at the very top (after the introductory information and new info about the relief well), has a link to the same blog as above and to another article (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/sc-dc-oil-spill-pipes-20100626,0,3318295,print.story), but they are still not sure how factual this information on the doubled pipe is: http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6674 Especially look at the message http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6674#comment-664555 and following discussion.

[Catherina]

4. I wish I could remember which idiots were saying there was no explosion

and beating up on the DU posters who said there was. They're rarely anywhere to be seen when information contradicts them.

[global1]

6. At The Beginning Of This Gusher We BP Didn't Provide Live Camera Pics.....

of what was going on down under. Could it be that they did some clean up work and removed debris before they provided us with the live cameras?