Abandoning the Capped Oil Well: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Thursday, July 22, 2010
FROM: http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2010/07/abandoning-capped-oil-well-what-could.html

BP will leave the cap on the oil well while it vacates the area for a number of days to avoid the coming tropical storm.
What could possibly go wrong?

One expert warns that increasing pressure might have an unintended danger:

Bill Gale, a California engineer and industrial explosion expert who is a member of the Deepwater Horizon Study Group, said… that gas hydrate crystals could be plugging any holes in the underground portion of the well, and they could get dislodged as pressure builds.
(Gale was formerly Chief Loss Prevention Engineer for Bechtel in San Francisco, obtained his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering, Masters in Civil Engineering and PhD in Fire Safety Engineering Science from the University of California, Berkeley. Gale is a registered professional engineer in both mechanical engineering and fire protection engineering, and has more than forty years of industrial loss prevention, process safety management, and fire protection/fire safety engineering experience.)

In other words, there may have been a destruction of a portion of the steel well casing which was temporarily plugged by methane hydrate crystals. Leaving the well cap may slowly raise the pressure in the well to the point where the hydrate crystals are dislodged, in which case the well might really start leaking.

Indeed, the relationship between methane hydrate, pressure and temperature is well-known:


Sound farfetched? Maybe.

But remember that the "top hat" containment dome failed because it got plugged up with methane hydrate crystals.

And remember that there's a lot of methane down there. Indeed, while most crude oil contains 5% methane, the crude oil gushing out of the blown out well is 40% methane.

Although even less likely, scientists say that the methane could disturb the seafloor itself. As the St. Peterburg Times points out:

Disturbing those [methane hydrate] deposits — say, by drilling an oil well through them — can turn that solid methane into a liquid, leaving the ocean floor unstable, explained [Carol Lutken of the University of Mississippi, which is part of a consortium with SRI which has been conducting methane research in the Gulf of Mexico for years].
***

Generally the oil industry tries to avoid methane areas during drilling for safety reasons. But the U.S. Energy Department wants to find a way to harvest fuel from those methane deposits, Lutken said. [I've previously discussed that issue in detail.]

So what's the bottom line?
I am not predicting that anything bad will happen. Hopefully, when the storm is over and the underwater ROV submersibles return to the spill site, everything will be peaceful and stable.

But there are many variables such as methane hydrates which - in a worst-case scenario - could complicate matters.


W said...
Suppose for a moment that the well is actually leaking.

The oil and gas is finding its way into pathways that it cut through the compromised well bore, and over time, it slowly hollows out a space as the fluid flows.

The flow into the other geological structures get larger and larger, and those, may (who knows) in turn, seep.

From this logic, seeps can happen miles (many) away that are really from pressure in this reservoir.

The longer the pressure is on, the more likely that if there are other pathways it will punch its way through it.

It can end up creating a much bigger problem.

July 22, 2010 4:17 PM

Post a Comment
→ Thank you for contributing to the conversation by commenting. We try to read all of the comments (but don't always have the time).

→ If you write a long comment, please use paragraph breaks. Otherwise, no one will read it. Many people still won't read it, so shorter is usually better (but it's your choice).

→ The following types of comments will be deleted if we happen to see them:

-- Comments that criticize any class of people as a whole, especially when based on an attribute they don't have control over

-- Comments that explicitly call for violence

→ Because we do not read all of the comments, I am not responsible for any unlawful or distasteful comments.

So You Thought Coal Was Dirty? Coal or Deep Water Drilling anyone ?

Bob Irish Reporting: Delray Beach,FL Monday July 19, 2010
Dear IDE Reader:

Our energy world will never be the same again, thanks to BP. But in re-examining our energy priorities, one sector remains ignored and all-but forgotten. And no way that should be the case, says our own Laura Rodini, IDE’s Chief Operating Officer. For the surprising lesson of BP’s Gulf Disaster, read below.
It’s been 90 days since the BP oil spill began in the Gulf of Mexico, and while BP managed to place a cap on top of the spewing oil late last week, there is no guarantee that the spill is contained.

There’s been a depressing amount of oil spilled - 9 times more oil than the Exxon Valdez, and growing!

And now with hurricane season underway, containment efforts are in danger.

Right now Congress is investigating whether deepwater drilling really is a safe means of oil production.

Which leads us to Andy Gordon’s very interesting pick in this month’s Sound Profits newsletter. You might call this a ‘contrarian pick.’

It’s a substance people normally think is dirtier than oil.

But in light of all that’s going on in the Gulf, I’d say it’s time to think again!

Coal Mythbuster: It’s Not Dirty
Coal is the most misunderstood and underrated of all the energy sectors. Since the 70s, we have tripled our consumption of coal. It provides half the electricity we use.

Yet, everybody discounts coal while championing their favorite pie-in-the-sky alternative...

Obama doesn’t get it. He’s using the BP crisis to push one of his pet projects – the development of solar and wind energy sources – into the forefront of technology development.

The World Bank doesn’t get it either. They’re also pushing so-called clean energy on developing countries.

And most investors don’t get it. They’re getting into other oil majors like Exxon Mobil and Chevron instead of investing in coal.

What these folks fail to understand is that coal is not dirty. The amount of emissions released into the atmosphere has actually shrunk by 40%.

That’s because today’s power plants emit far less pollutants (nasty stuff like SO2, NOX, Particulates, mercury) than the plants from the ‘70s, according to the National Energy Technology Laboratory.

And “scrubbers” installed in older power plants get rid of 99% of the pollutants that used to escape through their chimney stacks. In 2005, 22% of coal-fired capacity east of the Mississippi had these scrubbers. By the end of this year, over 50% of capacity is expected to be scrubbed.

That’s 90.6 gigawatts of coal-fired generation that will be retrofitted with new scrubbers by the end of 2011, according to the EIA.

The other good thing about coal is that we simply have a lot of it lying around....about 262 billion tons, according to the Energy Information Agency.

It accounts for 94% of all our fossil energy reserves – there’s more coal than oil in the U.S. And there’s enough coal in the world to last us another 235 years.

Add in the fact that coal is cheap to use. It’s the number-one fuel of China for a reason, you know.

It’s also hard to replace. Every man, woman and child in the U.S. consumes 3.8 tons of coal per year. That is the equivalent of 17,593 Big Macs.

Another way of looking at this is that the U.S. would have to build 250 nuclear reactors...or produce 17 more trillion cubic feet...or build 500 more damns the size of the gigantic Hoover Dam to replace the coal we use.

How are you going to come close to replacing that? The answer of course is you can’t.

In this month’s Sound Profits issue, Andy recommends one company that’s primed to ride coal’s under-the-radar comeback for major gains. As a Master Limited Partnership, it doesn’t have to pay taxes on its profits. Because it’s allowed to pass on the bulk of its income to shareholders, it sports a juicy 6.6% dividend!

As demand from China and India continue to rise (and maybe the US too, once it sees the light on dangerous offshore oil rigs), this company is primed to shine. In fact, Andy is projecting 80% gains in under two years!

Andy says that coal is not the “bridge to the future” as the so-called energy specialists claim it is. Coal is the future.

For all of the details – including Andy’s Buy Under price - sign up for the Sound Profits newsletter today. You can read all of the details about Sound Profits here.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
We want your feedback! Let us know your thoughts on this article. Email us at: feedback@investorsdailyedge.com

Market Window

To unsubscribe from Investor's Daily Edge and any associated external offers, Click here


To cancel or for any other subscription issues, write us at:

Investor's Daily Edge
PO Box 7835
Delray Beach, FL 33482
800.718.2891

Copyright © 2010 by Fourth Avenue Financial. All rights reserved. The Fourth Avenue Financial unites the stock-picking talents of several analysts and editors. Each of the services is based on individual trading/investment philosophies or vehicles and specific investment approaches.

Fourth Avenue Financials Investor's Daily Edge is intended specifically for mature investors with a strong sense of individual responsibility who want to arbitrage different viewpoints to optimize their personal investment strategy. We reserve the right to remove readers we believe do not meet these criteria from our distribution list without prior notice.

You are welcome to distribute this message, at your discretion, to others who you believe share the values of the Fourth Avenue Financial.

NOTE TO OUR READERS: Fourth Avenue Financial or Early To Rise does not act as an investment advisor or advocate the purchase or sale of any security or investment. Investments recommended in this publication should be made only after consulting with your investment advisor and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company in question.

Fourth Avenue Financial expressly forbids its writers from having a financial interest in any security that they recommend to their readers. Furthermore, all other employees and agents of Fourth Avenue Financial and its affiliate companies must wait 24 hours before following an initial recommendation published on the Internet, or 72 hours after a printed publication is mailed.

Email: feedback@investorsdailyedge.com | phone 800.718.2891

We respect your privacy. You can view our privacy policy here.
© Copyright Early to Rise, LLC., 2010

Government Censorship - Oil Spill in Gulf of Mexico might cause Tsunami !

There is a top secret program with some oil companies and the US government called "Deep Water Drilling" and the well that was being drilled was one of those. Even though it was at least one mile below the sea floor the whole well that was tapped may have been 5- 6 miles deep into the mantel of the Earth and the kind of pressure from that being tapped is something that will destroy attempts to cap the well.






Cassitation is a super-sonic implosion. A bubble may come up and sink every ship and platform within a 50 mile radius. The well has been at 100,000 lbs. per square inch pressure. That is why they have took so long capping the well.

Chris Landowe has written 2 papers about predicting that things like this could happen before it happened. All these wells may crack the ocean floor and have a volcano erupt under water, like Mt. St Helens under water
and then a tsunami would obliterate Florida,basically put it under the ocean.






Cloud of Death followed by Tsunami traveling at 400-600 MPH 1/2

URGENT - GULF OIL SPILL CAUSING TOXIC RAIN, KILLING CROPS??

I predicted that the oil would rise into the atmosphere and would rain
down on everyone as the winds of the Gulf of Mexico sweep over the southern United States. This seems to confirm what I had predicted to my colleagues at the Dept. of Homeland Security. An EPA official also confirmed that he thought this would happen. I believe the investigators may find lead poisoning to be occurring from the lead in the oil that has risen into the atmosphere around the Gulf.



Here is another video confirming that it is actually raining oil on the streets. British Petroleum may have created the largest environmental
disaster the world has seen since the atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. BP are corporate terrorists. Does that seem harsh? Well,all
they cared about was saving $500,000 for some saftey fixture and now the
Caribbean ,Southern USA and Mexico will bear the consequences of dying crops, animals and eventually people.



URGENT - GULF OIL SPILL CAUSING TOXIC RAIN, KILLING CROPS??
Toxic Oil Spill Rains Warned Could Destroy North America
Corexit 9500 molecules will be able to "phase transition" from their present liquid to a gaseous state allowing them to be absorbed into clouds and allowing their release as "toxic rain" upon all of Eastern North America contaminating water & food supply etc... Excerpt: A dire report prepared for President Medvedev by Russia's Ministry of Natural Resources is warning today that the British Petroleum (BP) oil and gas leak in the Gulf of Mexico is about to become the worst environmental catastrophe in all of human history threatening the entire eastern half of the North American continent with "total destruction". Russian scientists are basing their apocalyptic destruction assessment due to BP's use of millions of gallons of the chemical dispersal agent known as Corexit 9500 which is being pumped directly into the leak of this wellhead over a mile under the Gulf of Mexico waters and designed, this report says, to keep hidden from the American public the full, and tragic, extent of this leak that is now estimated to be over 2.9 million gallons a day. Scientists Warn Gulf Of Mexico Sea Floor Fractured "Beyond Repair" Scientists Warn Gulf Of Mexico Sea Floor Fractured "Beyond Repair" By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers A dire report circulating in the Kremlin today that was prepared for Prime Minister Putin by Anatoly Sagalevich of Russia's Shirshov Institute of Oceanology warns that the Gulf of Mexico sea floor has been fractured "beyond all repair" and our World should begin preparing for an ecological disaster "beyond comprehension" unless "extraordinary measures" are undertaken to stop the massive flow of oil into our Planet's eleventh largest body of water. Most important to note about Sagalevich's warning is that he and his fellow scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences are the only human beings to have actually been to the Gulf of Mexico oil leak site after their being called to the disaster scene by British oil giant BP shortly after the April 22nd sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform. BP's calling on Sagalevich after this catastrophe began is due to his being the holder of the World's record for the deepest freshwater dive and his expertise with Russia's two Deep Submergence Vehicles MIR 1 and MIR 2 [photo 2nd left] which are able to take their crews to the depth of 6,000 meters (19,685 ft). According to Sagalevich's report, the oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico is not just coming from the 22 inch well bore site being shown on American television, but from at least 18 other sites on the "fractured seafloor" with the largest being nearly 11 kilometers (7 miles) from where the Deepwater Horizon sank and is spewing into these precious waters an estimated 2 million gallons of oil a day. Interesting to note in this report is Sagalevich stating that he and the other Russian scientists were required by the United States to sign documents forbidding them to report their findings to either the American public or media, and which they had to do in order to legally operate in US territorial waters. However, Sagalevich says that he and the other scientists gave nearly hourly updates to both US government and BP officials about what they were seeing on the sea floor, including the US Senator from their State of Florida Bill Nelson who after one such briefing stated to the MSNBC news service "Andrea we're looking into something new right now, that there's reports of oil that's seeping up from the seabed... which would indicate, if that's true, that the well casing itself is actually pierced... underneath the seabed. So, you know, the problems could be just enormous with what we're facing." Though not directly stated in Sagalevich's report, Russian scientists findings on the true state of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster are beyond doubt being leaked to his longtime friend, and former US President George W. Bush's top energy advisor Matthew Simmons, who US media reports state has openly said: "Matthew Simmons is sticking by his story that there's another giant leak in the Gulf of Mexico blowing massive amounts of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. On CNBC's Fast Money, he says he'd be surprised if BP lasted this summer, saying this is disaster is entirely BP's fault."cancelsave

Water Samples Prove Toxic, Sample EXPLODES! Must Watch !!!

When Water Samples were tested, the samples came back with 16 to 221 Parts per million from Orange Beach, LA.
Dolphin Island Marine Water Sample EXPLODES !!!

Kevin Costner's Oil-Water separation machines to be deployed by British Petroleum

Jay Vise Reporting
BP has given the green light for funding of a device that can separate oil from water.

Development of the machine, which uses a centrifuge to separate the fluids, has been backed by actor Kevin Costner to the tune of $25 million.

John Houghtaling, Costner's chief partner in the project, told WWL First News that the oil company has ordered 32 of the devices for use in the Gulf of Mexico.

"In a matter of weeks, we can be manufacturing ten of these a week," Houghtaling said. "So we're hoping by the first of August to have all 32 of these things in the Gulf."

Listen to Houtaling talk about the deployment of the device:


According to Houtaling, the machines cost roughly half a million dollars to build, but also require the hiring of vessels to take them out onto the water.

Though the world-famous actor and Houtaling are both pleased that BP has now agreed to deploy the devices, Costner told members of Congress earlier this week. that he'd had a hard time getting an opportunity to try out his centrifuge for the Coast Guard.

"We would offer to take our machines out there but we couldn't get onto the spots because the Coast Guard would regulate that we couldn't get there," Costner testified.

Houghtaling said that in addition to providing clean-up duty in the gulf, deployment of even more of the devices could aid in shortening the six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling.

He said that he'd like to see the government use the machines as a safety measure to keep the deep-water drilling rigs in operation as safety procedures are reviewed.

"By the end of August...our company can have thirty-three of the machines around the rigs. If there's a spill, we can deploy," Houtaling said.

To view an animation of how the device works, click the window below:



Meanwhile Costner's company is moving toward leasing 16 more oil sucking and separating machines to Plaquemines Parish officials directly. They say if BP won't pay for that, they may sell the oil local officials pull from the water and fund the machines that way.

View All 12 "Spill Cam" Video Feeds - WWL - AM870 | FM105.3