Reuters Photojournalism
Our day's top images, in-depth photo essays and offbeat slices of life. See the best of Reuters photography. See more | Photo caption
The SpaceX mission
A privately owned unmanned rocket blasts off on a mission to be the first commercial flight to the International Space Station. Slideshow
Final BP well plug delayed until September
Related Video
1 of 2. Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen rides on a crew boat in the Gulf of Mexico on a trip to view ''vessels of opportunity'', private boats that are helping to clean up spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico, in this July 8, 2010 file photo.
Credit: Reuters/Jeff Mason/Files
HOUSTON |
HOUSTON (Reuters) - BP Plc likely won't put the final plug in its blown-out Gulf of Mexico oil well until September to allow replacement of a critical piece of seabed equipment, the top U.S. oil spill official said on Thursday.
Concern over how to safely proceed after pouring cement in the Macondo well from the top, as well as weather delays, pushed the last step past the U.S. Labor Day holiday on September 6 from mid-August, retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said at a briefing in Washington.
"As we get to the end, we are very close to putting this well away," Allen said. "I think none of us wants to make a mistake at this point."
Allen authorized BP on Thursday to craft a plan to retrieve the failed blowout preventer atop the Macondo well about a mile beneath the ocean surface and replace it with another before drilling resumes on the relief well.
Meanwhile, Swiss-based Transocean Ltd, owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig that was under contract for BP when it exploded, has accused BP of withholding evidence about actions that led to the worst offshore oil spill in history.
In a confidential letter to BP executives obtained by Reuters, Transocean said it "appears that BP is withholding evidence in an attempt to prevent any entity other than BP from investigating the cause of the April 20th incident and the resulting spill."
BP said the letter contained "misguided and misleading assertions," and that the company has cooperated with ongoing federal investigations.
The blowout preventer failed when the well ruptured on April 20, causing an explosion aboard the drilling rig that killed 11 workers.
Nearly 5 million barrels of oil spewed into the Gulf, contaminating wetlands, fishing grounds and beaches from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle.
No oil has leaked into Gulf waters since July 15, when BP sealed shut a provisional cap over the wellhead.
Allen said the blowout preventer is key evidence in investigations of the disaster, including those by the U.S. Department of Justice and a joint probe by the Coast Guard and the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
"We do not want to have damage to that blowout preventer if we can avoid it because it's going to be material evidence of exactly what happened during the event itself," Allen said.
In the meantime, BP is testing pressure in the well and seabed equipment, he said.
Kent Wells, BP's senior vice president of exploration and production, said later the test should confirm that the cement and a seal beneath the blowout preventer will hold in the 24-hour period it will take to remove it and install the replacement.
The relief well is about 50 feet from its target near the bottom of the Macondo well about 13,000 feet beneath the seabed.
BP engineers and government scientists were concerned cement injected from the top may have trapped up to 1,000 barrels of oil in the space between the well pipe and the surrounding rock layers.
They want to make sure pumping in mud and cement through the relief well will not increase pressure and force that oil up, where it could leak into the sea or damage the blowout preventer.
Wells said the replacement blowout preventer will be better than the failed one if the relief well intersection indeed increases pressure in the well.
"We just think it's a prudent thing to do going forward," Wells said.
(Editing by Doina Chiacu)
- Tweet this
- Link this
- Share this
- Digg this
- Reprints
In the last news conference that I watched Allen have, he stated that the oil he was worried about was above the cement in the lower annulus that U tubed upward from the downward pressure of the huge volume of cement that was pumped out the bottom of the lower pipe and then U tubed up into the annulus. It was pushed out the bottom of the casing pipe with a U turn upward into the space between the pipe and rock (the annulus) pushing 1000 bbl of oil ahead of it upward into the annulus far above this new cement into the annulus space.
The purpose of the relief well is to re-cement this annular space already proven to be sealed (by pressure tests according to Allen).
If that were true, then the nearly 5000 feet of hard cement inside the lower pipe above the Monster Zone is solid and — also — the huge amount of cement that U tubed and turned up the lower annulus due to the pumping pressure (higher than annulus pressure) — is just as hard as that cement in the lower pipe.
I have seen a few inches of formation hold back a gusher before cable tooling it with one single stroke of the bit (in open hole) to break those inches and release the huge pressure below rushing up the open hole.
A mile of cement is better and thicker than a little “cap rock” — to cap the well.
So what are they worried about?
They worry that the relief well will somehow rupture something and push the 1000 bbl of oil out the top — and the upward flow would ruin their weak link of the “spooling nipple” the new cap sits on. This link is designed to be held by a Hydraulic ring.
However Allan says that this weak link connection was (stupidly) not designed for anything over 7500 psi and is only good for less than that (smart design instead of simply bolting it shut).
Before they used it they predicted greatly over 8000 psi.
Already small bubbles have come out of the stack –especially when the pumping pressure was > 7000 psi pumping mud that leaked a little (notice the black mud stuff on the stack during the mud pumping — I once watched a robot use a high pressure hose to wash it off LOL) but all such leaks were slow because they are bolted together instead of the weak link Hydraulic ring design — of the new cap.
They seem to fear that this oil is close somewhere near the top of the well and that it will come gushing out either from the annulus, or the pipe, or somewhere in the giant stack of stuff just above the sea bed casing pipe.
Their solution to this as reported today is to now move a BOP from another well over to this one — because their design for the Macondo Well “cap” was only designed for less pressure that they expected the well to have — very smart people.
If this upper well oil (by some unreported leak not revealed in their talks) and is thus open to the BOP, then why not connect some 18 inch casing to the top of the cap, lower a Reda Pump on tubing (and after opening the cap) pump the oil out to a surface ship… NOW? Then not remove the ship connection until after the relief well finishes its mischievous and dangerous business.
Also, if the relief well ruptures something, the surface ship will sit there and just collect the O and G leaking up its casing to the top cap from the blowout — to sell or burn.
With the top cap open to the ship, then the pressure from any rupture can never exceed its stupid low pressure design.
The whole mess is this.
The well is now very well sealed from the Monster Zone as mentioned above due to a (too good) cement job — which was followed by a Halliburton “squeeze job” during static kill to make it even better.
The relief well is being used, “Because we, or I, said WE will USE IT.”
If it ruptures something or creates another blow out of the present well, or has a BOP failure of its own, and creates a new Gulf Gusher, or if it drills into the zone and has a lost circulation problem — and then blows out — and all this unnecessary mess creates another disaster, “I said we would use it.”
Then (in that event) I suggest we send the Government a “hand mirror” with the words in “blood red” lipstick on its face saying, “Look who restarted this NEW Gulf Disaster.”
They could just abandon using this relief well and follow standard plugging rules for the Macondo Well — and I would breathe easier.
They don’t need to move BOPs unless they are afraid the relief well will blow up the ship above the well connected to the top of the present cap.
They will use it.
“I said with one ’stake already driven through its heart’, I will now use the relief well to try and drive ‘a second stake through its heart’. It will not be dead or killed (twice over) until the relief well is used. Only then will my final and official word from the Government say — it has NOW been killed (twice).” Who is this spokesman admiral listening to?
Really, really smart thinking… at the expense and risk of the peoples of the Gulf Region.
Sad sad thinking but hopefully not as bad as the thinking that lead to the First Blowout.
That is because a Second Unnecessary Blowout will have the stamp of approval of “our” Government on it.
Sad but true.
Allen’s last remarks said they might pull out the dirlling pipe after removing the stack of stuff at the sea bed.
Immediately when they do that, things will start to get embarrassing for him.
With nothing inside the casing except for water and close to a mile of hard cement at the bottom — Suddenly there is absolutely no need to use the relief well they promise to use (hell or high water).
They either made the wrong or right Chess Move for those who like or dislike the relief well.
The mile of cement inside the pipe at the bottom of the hole — will never never move. They know this. The World knows this.
The only true need for the relief well is to cement the annulus outside the lower pipe (with a rock hard mile of cement inside it).
In the O & G business you have a sealed well and if you worry about the lower annulus, what do you do?
Everybody knows you perforate the lower part and squeeze cement into the outside part (the annulus). This is exactly what the relief well is there to do.
At that very point when the drill pipe is removed, there are two things you can do.
One is cement using the dangerous relief well.
The other is to perforate the lower pipe through a packer on tubing near the bottom and squeeze cement it.
Ask any Oilman at all — which is safer.
Obviously the perforation into the lower annulus with a packer set on tubing prevents the pressure from coming up if it finds any, and the annulus is still connected to the Monster Zone. Allen says that the Monster Zone is isolated now by the static kill cement and that could not happen. I would still use the packer on tubing despite what he says.
The packer is just good insurance in case Allen is wrong.
Then use Haliburton to “squeeze cement” the lower annulus where they worry is the ONLY weak link needing done to call the well DEAD.
They would do this with the relief well but it is too dangerous compared to the method above and totally unnecessary — other than the, “I told you I would use it” — pitifully stupid reason.
Just plug it by perforating the casing above the present 5000 foot cement plug, after removing the drill pipe — using a packer on tubing for protection and insurance.
They will have absolutely no excuse at all then — to play around and blow up something with the relief well — and standard plugging procedure will plug the well anyway.
The cement annulus squeeze through a packer into the lower casing perforations — totally avoids any possible reason for using the relief well — other than the stupid “I said we would use it argument”
They played this Chess Game and the Common Sense of the World will tell them “CHECKMATE” after they have removed the drill pipe.
It tells them — now forget the relief well.
Also it avoids us sending them the hand mirror.
It also appears that simple & proven methods to kill an oil well are not being employed. We need to ponder why?
As Alkan, stated several times,” I said,We Will use it!” is setting us all up for the steady & continuous use of The Macondo well.
Thank you Alkan. You had better duck…
Trashton Porter, now has fodder for new “Oilageddon Blues” tunes..
I spent many years in the oil business, but have long been retired. I know the common sense things to do and simply can’t understand using a relief well that hads its BOP tested where its Kill button would not even work.
They say they have it working now however.
But two wells double your potential for all kinds of bad things.
I know they will not listen, but merely hope there will be enough pressure put on them to simply use the casing of the Macondo Well to plug it — instead of the relief well.
There is a good chance the relief well will do the job — if you like to live dangerously.
I prefer the peaceful tried and proven method of setting a packer on tubing very very close to bottom where the mile of cement is inside the pipe. Then perforate into the annulus with the smaller size perforating jet charges can be run through the tubing below the packer.
Then they will probably not be able to pump into it because the annulus has a good chance of being already sealed, but that high up, they may find bit of open space to pump into the annulus, and declare the Well totally DEAD.
They will do this cement squeeze job down the tubing with the Packer protecting the well from anything coming upward (just for insurance).
The packer will not let anything come up the casing — just the cement will go below it into the annulus to permanently Kill the well.
This is even better than the relief well, as the relief well might fracture the lower formation or some other horrible thing happen.
With the drill pipe removed for evidence (because it was in the BOP when it failed and it will have dents if the rams shut onto it without cutting it into)
I do believe Oil People will pressure them to use the safer method, and hopefully they will be forced to kill the well FINALLY with this proven standard and safe method.
We will just have to wait and see. It will be killed.
I just like safe and common sense things.
Follow Reuters