BP to remove equipment at Gulf well by Sunday-US gov't
* Calmer seas will allow equipment switch to proceed
* Drilling to resume on relief well after switch
By Kristen Hays
HOUSTON, Sept 1 (Reuters) - BP Plc (BP.L) (BP.N) expects to remove a failed blowout preventer atop its ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well by Saturday or Sunday and later plug the leak for good, the top official overseeing the spill response said on Wednesday.
"We believe in the next 24 to 36 hours, we will enter a weather window that will allow us to proceed," retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said at a briefing in Houston.
Rough seas near the Macondo well site on Monday suspended work to remove the giant stack of pipes and valves and replace it with another, a needed step before BP resumes drilling a relief well to plug the leak.
The relief well remains on target to intersect the Macondo well sometime after the U.S. Labor Day holiday on Monday. The relief well is about 50 feet (15 metres) from its target near the bottom of the Macondo well about 13,000 feet (4,000 metres) beneath the seabed.
Allen said six- to eight-foot waves forced BP to hold off, but three-foot waves are expected Thursday through Sunday.
The failed BOP is critical evidence in criminal and civil investigations into the April 20 blowout that led to an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. The blast killed 11 men.
A working BOP can handle increased pressure when the relief well bores into the Macondo well, Allen said.
The combined weight of the pipe that will lift it from the seabed, a latching mechanism and the BOP will be about 1 million pounds, Allen said.
Waves higher than three feet could overly stress the pipe and make the BOP swing like a pendulum, he said.
BP aims on Thursday to start by removing a cap atop the BOP equipment that has cut off all oil flow since July 15, Allen said.
BP initially plugged the well on Aug. 5 with cement pumped in from the top. Company and government scientists believe oil won't leak during the switch.
"We do believe the risks are small for a hydrocarbon release," Allen said. "That said, there will be containment vessels on standby just in case they're needed." (Editing by Jerry Norton)
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Why not end this mess sooner?
They now have a well that is static and has been opened to the sea water with no problems.
The upper cap has been opened. Inside the stack in the middle is a 6 5/8 inch od drill pipe that is not crimped shut by the rams but held there hanging maybe 3500 feet down from the central part held bt the failed BOP cutting rams.
What is available to do now without any problem?
Into the riser now there, have Haliburton lower their logging tool through the riser and into the drill pipe hanging in the middle.
Then find the location of the bit being raised during the blow out. Say it is located 3500 feet below the sea bed floor.
Then use a wireline pipe cutter and zap and cut off the bit — and let it fall thousands of feet to bottom — where it will hit the 5000 feet of cement at the bottom of the casing that was put there by the static kill (that worked).
Then run another wireline tool to log the bottom of the casing and see exact things like the extent and location of the cement with, cement bond logs of the casing check other parameters.
If the bond logs show good annular cement outside the casing at the level of the lower 5000 foot cement plug in the casing — that absolutely PROVES that the annulus is perfectly plugged and the well is ready for standard plugging procedure. There is nothing else to do (like playing and experimenting with a relief well).
It will also show if any weak spots in the cement can be repaired by using a packer on tubing to perforate the lower casing and squeeze cement any bad annulus spot — to repair it — all without needing a Relief Well.
NO RELIEF WELL can do anything more to help matters if there is cement — as that is all it hopes to do if it doesn’t restart another Blow Out to the Gulf.
Dudley (the new chief of BP) just got through stating the relief well WILL BE USED after they put on the new BOP.
The reason he gave for going ahead and using it was that the experiment of using a relief well at this great depth needs to be tested as something new might be learned by playing around with it.
Experiments are for Physicists at the Cern Switzerland Particle Collider — to run experiments — to see if vastly higher collision energies will cause a chain reaction — to destroy our Gallaxy.
Experiments are certainly not for those of the Gulf — already suffering from the last BOP experiment BP tried on their Macondo Well when it failed after they tried the other experiment of pulling up the drill pipe and put in seawater that let liquid methane rise to turn into gas and blow out the well.
We all know what such experiments can do.
Standard procedures are safe and run no risk at all — like logging this well without doing another dangerous thing.
Why not end this mess sooner?
The above way to leave everything just as it is and possible prove the well is already killed (for sure) would be the first logical move.
Suppose it found the annular cement job was weak or the annulus outside the lower pipe needed more cement?
They can then run lower a packer on large tubing and cement the annulus as needed — this can even be done after they remove the malfunctioning BOP for the investigation.
In that case I suppose they will then put on another BOP (hopefully a better one) and at that point (from Allen’s statement) will have maybe 3000 feet of drill pipe hanging below the BOP that he says they will cut off the bottom of the old BOP that will then fall several thousand feet to the bottom of the well and hit the 5000 foot cement bottom plug (hopefully not shattering and breaking something).
Maybe they will not let it fall if they are smart.
At any rate, after they fish out or remove this 3000 foot of drill pipe, they can do the same thing as above (even much easier).
The problem is that they propose to do nothing to check things after they remove the present BOP — just forget about the drill pipe they cut off and maybe not remove it or check anything — just hurry hurry up with the dangerous relief well.
If they first clean out the drill pipe, then they can check for lower casing cement outside the pipe with several types of bond logs etc.
If they find the annulus at the bottom needs more cement, they can run a packer on large tubing and set it near bottom — then run a wireline through the tubing and packer near the bottom cement inside the pipe — and then perforate the casing into any open annulus space they find near the bottom protected by the packer from anything (viz pressure) coming up the casing — then “squeeze cement” into the annulus through the packer (with the set packer being there only there for insurance and safety).
That procedure would be everything that the relief well could possibly do and more — as they can do logging to recheck afterward to see if everything was done perfectly before totally plugging the well.
This will avoid the myriad of dangerous things the Relief Well experiment could cause.
They will be using safe standard O&G procedures that everybody know are safe.
The well is then “Killed Twice” like Allen keeps saying it needs and wants done.
Everybody in the Gulf will then be happy to know its over (except maybe Allen and BP people).
BP would love to do the experiment and play with the relief well at this rare depth to learn what can be done and whatever potential problems can go wrong.
Allen also wants the relief well — and he will be glad they use it because he kept repeating and promising: (”The well will not be killed until the relief well is used.”) because he is sticking by his stupid order to further endanger the peoples of the Gulf and satisfy his own pride.
Will they do the experiment and further endanger the Gulf and its people — YES.
They said they will, and they WILL — unless of course they (very soon) suddenly realize they are being inhumane and stupid to create possible serious problems with experiments.
Simple safe standard things however are best.
Doing what is best however will not be mentioned by history — if and only if — the relief well does not cause another disaster.
However using safe standard things will be mentioned as something that “should have been done” as a Monday morning quarterback view by our recorded history —
if the combined action of Allen and BP create another HUGE Blow Out.
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