BP Oil Spill Updates

Joe wrote: VL, I thought you were a lowly Union Baggage handler? What do you know about oil wells? BTW, I am still missing some bags from a Chicago flight in 1998. Do you have them? LOL

No, I made most of my money as an free lance entrepreneur...And let me check my garage..hold on

Photo-fish wrote: I thought that was what the relief wells were for? Aren't they still drilling those?

I thought I heard the relief wells were going to be used strictly for pumping in mud and concrete. But check with VL first.

Joe wrote:

Photo-fish wrote: I thought that was what the relief wells were for? Aren't they still drilling those?

I thought I heard the relief wells were going to be used strictly for pumping in mud and concrete. But check with VL first.

No...They are being drilled to pump the oil out and relieve the pressure on Deep Horizon #9. BP ain't gonna drill two 10,000 foot wells just to plug a hole, they are still a greedy self serving corporation after all.

Photo-fish wrote: I thought that was what the relief wells were for? Aren't they still drilling those?

Relief wells are cased holes with a mud column that is carefully weighted to equalize reservoir pressures. As such they afford pressure control that can not be afforded another way. Recall the "top kill" attempt and its failure. This was because the mud column could not be adjusted to compensate for the bottom hole (reservoir) pressures. There was not sufficient column height nor was this process capable of keeping the mud in the hole. Too much of it got blown out since there was no tight seal. Relief wells eliminate those shortcomings.

One can not just pump a reservoir empty like you do a gas tank. The volumes are too great generally speaking. Not only would it take an enormously long time but a oil reservoir is not an unground lake. Instead it is porous rock through which the oil must move. It is impossible to evacuate an oil reservoir with a single well in a short period of time. The flow rates of the oil through the rock marshal against it for one and even if that were not a critical constraint, a single well draining a oil reservoir is similar to draining a 2 million liter storage tank using a single swizzle straw. It is going to take a long time.

The chief concern now is to insure a lasting seal on the blown well. The relief wells are not designed to pump down pressure in the reservoir, instead their objective is to intersect the failed well and thereby provide a pathway to inject mud and cement into the borehole currently streaming oil. Once sealed, field development will take place and many tens of wells will be drilled to produce the reservoir until it's depletion decades in the future.

One other issue with high production rates is that it is exceedingly harmful to the reservoir in terms of leaving oil behind (bypassed oil) , water coning and a host of other reservoir problems.

With regard to pressure changes through earth shifts. Such matters are of critical concern in active fault zones. The Gulf of Mexico is thousands of miles away from Plate tectonic margins. Salt rising to the surface creates pressure anomalies in the Gulf of Mexico, but these are localized and the salt bodies mappable on seismic. More important, the pressure build up is on a geologic not human time scale.

Vice Lord wrote: No...They are being drilled to pump the oil out and relieve the pressure on Deep Horizon #9. BP ain't gonna drill two 10,000 foot wells just to plug a hole, they are still a greedy self serving corporation after all.

A drilling rig drills a relief well or second well to intersect the original, flowing well as deeply as possible. A specialized heavy liquid is then pumped into the flowing well to bring it under control. This liquid is denser than oil and so exerts pressure (known as hydrostatic pressure) to suppress the flow of oil. Once the flow is stopped, cement is pumped into the well to completely
plug it.

Rockdoc Franz wrote:

Photo-fish wrote: I thought that was what the relief wells were for? Aren't they still drilling those?

Relief wells are cased holes with a mud column that is carefully weighted to equalize reservoir pressures. As such they afford pressure control that can not be afforded another way. Recall the "top kill" attempt and its failure. This was because the mud column could not be adjusted to compensate for the bottom hole (reservoir) pressures. There was not sufficient column height nor was this process capable of keeping the mud in the hole. Too much of it got blown out since there was no tight seal. Relief wells eliminate those shortcomings.

One can not just pump a reservoir empty like you do a gas tank. The volumes are too great generally speaking. Not only would it take an enormously long time but a oil reservoir is not an unground lake. Instead it is porous rock through which the oil must move. It is impossible to evacuate an oil reservoir with a single well in a short period of time. The flow rates of the oil through the rock marshal against it for one and even if that were not a critical constraint, a single well draining a oil reservoir is similar to draining a 2 million liter storage tank using a single swizzle straw. It is going to take a long time.

The chief concern now is to insure a lasting seal on the blown well. The relief wells are not designed to pump down pressure in the reservoir, instead their objective is to intersect the failed well and thereby provide a pathway to inject mud and cement into the borehole currently streaming oil. Once sealed, field development will take place and many tens of wells will be drilled to produce the reservoir until it's depletion decades in the future.

One other issue with high production rates is that it is exceedingly harmful to the reservoir in terms of leaving oil behind (bypassed oil) , water coning and a host of other reservoir problems.

With regard to pressure changes through earth shifts. Such matters are of critical concern in active fault zones. The Gulf of Mexico is thousands of miles away from Plate tectonic margins. Salt rising to the surface creates pressure anomalies in the Gulf of Mexico, but these are localized and the salt bodies mappable on seismic. More important, the pressure build up is on a geologic not human time scale.

Save it Franz- They don't understand a word you're sayin- You gotta dumb it down a little here bro

Joe wrote:

Vice Lord wrote: No...They are being drilled to pump the oil out and relieve the pressure on Deep Horizon #9. BP ain't gonna drill two 10,000 foot wells just to plug a hole, they are still a greedy self serving corporation after all.

A drilling rig drills a relief well or second well to intersect the original, flowing well as deeply as possible. A specialized heavy liquid is then pumped into the flowing well to bring it under control. This liquid is denser than oil and so exerts pressure (known as hydrostatic pressure) to suppress the flow of oil. Once the flow is stopped, cement is pumped into the well to completely
plug it.

Don't believe everything BP tells you kid....

Geez, your like a babe in the woods

Joe wrote:

Vice Lord wrote: No...They are being drilled to pump the oil out and relieve the pressure on Deep Horizon #9. BP ain't gonna drill two 10,000 foot wells just to plug a hole, they are still a greedy self serving corporation after all.

A drilling rig drills a relief well or second well to intersect the original, flowing well as deeply as possible. A specialized heavy liquid is then pumped into the flowing well to bring it under control. This liquid is denser than oil and so exerts pressure (known as hydrostatic pressure) to suppress the flow of oil. Once the flow is stopped, cement is pumped into the well to completely
plug it.

Yes, Joe. This is correct. A little more elaboration here. The liquid is the drilling mud. Heavy minerals such a barite among others are added to produce the right weight. Think of this as being similar to a a five gallon container filled with water and another filled with sand. The sand is more dense than water (about 2.7 gr/cm3 vs 1 gr/cm3).
While denser than the oil, this fact is of little relevance. The critical factor is the mud weight needs to balance reservoir pressure. Reservoir pressure may or may not be at hydrostatic pressure. Hydrostatic pressure is equal to the wight of the rock column at any particular depth. Reservoir pressures in excess of hydrostatic pressure can exist if the oil reservoir formed at a depth greater than the one in which it currently occurs and the seal preserves the higher pressure. Salt tectonics are infamous for pressure anomalies (think pressures higher than those expected for a given depth) because the salt actively moves up through the sedimentary rocks.

Rockdoc Franz wrote:

Joe wrote:

Vice Lord wrote: No...They are being drilled to pump the oil out and relieve the pressure on Deep Horizon #9. BP ain't gonna drill two 10,000 foot wells just to plug a hole, they are still a greedy self serving corporation after all.

A drilling rig drills a relief well or second well to intersect the original, flowing well as deeply as possible. A specialized heavy liquid is then pumped into the flowing well to bring it under control. This liquid is denser than oil and so exerts pressure (known as hydrostatic pressure) to suppress the flow of oil. Once the flow is stopped, cement is pumped into the well to completely
plug it.

Yes, Joe. This is correct. A little more elaboration here. The liquid is the drilling mud. Heavy minerals such a barite among others are added to produce the right weight. Think of this as being similar to a a five gallon container filled with water and another filled with sand. The sand is more dense than water (about 2.7 gr/cm3 vs 1 gr/cm3).
While denser than the oil, this fact is of little relevance. The critical factor is the mud weight needs to balance reservoir pressure. Reservoir pressure may or may not be at hydrostatic pressure. Hydrostatic pressure is equal to the wight of the rock column at any particular depth. Reservoir pressures in excess of hydrostatic pressure can exist if the oil reservoir formed at a depth greater than the one in which it currently occurs and the seal preserves the higher pressure. Salt tectonics are infamous for pressure anomalies (think pressures higher than those expected for a given depth) because the salt actively moves up through the sedimentary rocks.

You may be an expert on rocks and dirt, but i'm an expert on corporate greed, and Hanz...There's no limit to it. As soon as we turn our backs they'll be pumping oil from those relief wells.

Mark my words

Vice Lord wrote:

Rockdoc Franz wrote:

Joe wrote:

Vice Lord wrote: No...They are being drilled to pump the oil out and relieve the pressure on Deep Horizon #9. BP ain't gonna drill two 10,000 foot wells just to plug a hole, they are still a greedy self serving corporation after all.

A drilling rig drills a relief well or second well to intersect the original, flowing well as deeply as possible. A specialized heavy liquid is then pumped into the flowing well to bring it under control. This liquid is denser than oil and so exerts pressure (known as hydrostatic pressure) to suppress the flow of oil. Once the flow is stopped, cement is pumped into the well to completely
plug it.

Yes, Joe. This is correct. A little more elaboration here. The liquid is the drilling mud. Heavy minerals such a barite among others are added to produce the right weight. Think of this as being similar to a a five gallon container filled with water and another filled with sand. The sand is more dense than water (about 2.7 gr/cm3 vs 1 gr/cm3).
While denser than the oil, this fact is of little relevance. The critical factor is the mud weight needs to balance reservoir pressure. Reservoir pressure may or may not be at hydrostatic pressure. Hydrostatic pressure is equal to the wight of the rock column at any particular depth. Reservoir pressures in excess of hydrostatic pressure can exist if the oil reservoir formed at a depth greater than the one in which it currently occurs and the seal preserves the higher pressure. Salt tectonics are infamous for pressure anomalies (think pressures higher than those expected for a given depth) because the salt actively moves up through the sedimentary rocks.

You may be an expert on rocks and dirt, but i'm an expert on corporate greed, and Hanz...There's no limit to it. As soon as we turn our backs they'll be pumping oil from those relief wells.

Mark my words

VL, I make no pretense about expertise regarding corporate greed. I expect BP will deviate one of the holes to intersect the reservoir if it is not needed in plugging the run-away well. You bet they are going to try and make back a ton of the money they lost and will continue to loose with the cleanup and law suits to follow.