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Gold/Mining/Energy : Big Dog's Boom Boom Room -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bearcatbob who wrote (134767)	6/13/2010 8:20:30 AM
From: Aggie	2 Recommendations Respond to of 206209

Hi Bearcatbob, The pressures under which the well is flowing means the formation fluid is all virtually one phase. It is only as the fluid nears sea level that the gas is breaking out of solution in meaningful volumes. At the wellhead (i.e. at the seabed), the pressures are still in excess of 2000 psi, and nearly all of the gas is still in solution. That is really one of the root causes of the blowout, when you think about it - they didn't realize they had taken a kick until the gas started breaking out near surface. By then, it was all in the drilling riser above the BOP's and there was no way to contain it. Aggie <Edit> - You point is well taken though - now that they are collecting a good portion of the flow and bringing it to the surface, they are finally able to get a good measurement of the Gas Oil Ratio. In other words, they know how much gas is being flared, and how much oil they are collecting. This is an important piece of information, and it is very useful in narrowing the range of uncertainty around the well's flow rate.