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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (73905)	5/8/2010 12:59:04 PM
From: Broken_Clock	Respond to of 149317

Little by little, facts emerge regarding Deepwater Horizon accident May 7, 2010 glgroup.com Analysis by: Michael Lynch Summary Minutes before the Deepwater Horizon exploded, workers on the deck heard a thump and a hissing sound. Gas alarms sounded. Seawater and mud went all the way up to the crown of the derrick. Fumes moved into "safe zones" where the electric generators raced out of control. Light bulbs exploded and other electrical systems were destroyed. The rig was left in darkness except for the fire blazing around the derrick floor. Before the blowout, the rig's crew had been replacing heavy mud with salt water. Analysis Once the 115 survivors of the accident had time to go home, clean up get a home-cooked meal and reassure loved ones, some of them began emailing to their friends, for the most part professional oil men, personal accounts of what happened.These message went all around the world and many of them have now accumulated in my file on Mississippi Canyon block 252. In preparation for temporary abandonment of the well, a combination 9 5/8" by 7" production string was set from the bottom of the hole at 18,000 feet to the wellhead at the mud line, 5,000 feet below sea level.Then the casing was cemented by Halliburton oil well cementers using a high temperature cement blended with retarders. The retarders prolong setting time to preclude the possibility of "flash set" before the job could be completed. In this instance, all went as programmed. The cemented string passed the integrity tests. In the wellhead, a multi-segmented "packoff" was installed around the top joint of the 9 5/8" casing and tested to 10,000 pounds per square inch. So far so good. The final step to secure the well was setting of a cement plug at 3,000 feet below the mud line, i.e., 8,000 feet below sea level. The length of the cement plug has not been cited but typically such plugs are from 100 to 200 feet in length. Open ended drill pipe was run in the well down to the level at which the final plug would be set. According to one of the emails in circulation and I stress that these accounts cannot be verified and may be in error, a dispute arose between the BP Drilling Supervisor and one or more BP drilling engineers. The dispute concerned displacement of the heavy mud in the hole with sea water before beginning the cementation of the final plug. In the event, it was finally agreed to replace the heavy mud with sea water. This appears to have been the fatal mistake. The displacement reduced the hydrostatic head by about 3,000 pounds per square inch. This greatly reduced the safety factor. Usually, the rig "stands cemented" for 24 hours to obtain ultimate cement strength. In this instance the rig stood cemented for 20 hours. One possibility is that the casing failed, allowing crude oil and gas to enter the well. Another theory is that the natural gas began working its way up through the uncured cement and arrived at the "packoff". The pressure of the gas column exceeded the containment strength of the "pack off", blew it away and began its ascent to the drilling rig. In an empty hole, natural gas travels at a rate of 1,000 feet per second. With salt water in the casing and riser, travel time would have been two or three minutes. Once the gas arrived at the surface and entered the engine room, the prime movers would have pulled the gas into the air intake manifold. The engines would have "run away", the generators would overload, a light bulb would explode (or something similar) and an explosion would have occurred. This was an exceptionally large gas flow and the secondary explosions must have damaged the ballast controls allowing the rig to list. At that point, the game was over. Again, I stress that this analysis is based on anecdotal evidence. But as a professional drilling and completion supervisor, I can read the tea leaves with some accuracy.

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (73905)	5/8/2010 1:11:19 PM
From: koan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 149317

Well, IMO, if we are going to get real about peak oil, the very first thing we need to do is put a large tax on gas. We can make cars that get twice the gas milage right now. Do a cash for clunkers and make a stipulation one has to buy a car with twice the gas milage of any they turn in. And so on and so forth. But the human species likes to live in fantasy worlds e.g. beliefs in myths where the scientific facts directly contradict what they beleive. And 99% of the worlds population lives like this. So why would we all of a sudden get smart and face reality about peak oil?