Horizon Deepwater

So Brotherfish are you saying you are now for more regulation?

Looking at this current disaster and the recent mining disasters it just shows how dangerous our energy infrastructure is. Pardon me for the tangent but a disaster like this doesn't make me feel that good about more nuclear energy either. Considering that a disaster to a nuclear power plant or waste storage system could make this disaster seem minor.

We obviously need more energy sources but we really need to do more to conserve as a society.

 

I have never been against regulation and oversight.

Accidents happen, however, there is no excuse for a solid and effective plan to mitigate the aftermath of a disaster like this.

I am a avid fisherman. The enviormental disaster this has resulted in pisses me off to no end.

Also, my career has been affected by this disaster. I am an offshore platform design engineer (topsides only). There is a very good chance that our clients will now put these projects on hold.

So, why would I not be for regulations that protect my favorite passtime and career?

 

The are chokepoints everywhere. The Alaskan pipeline is as strong as the weakest link.

 

Here's a really interesting perstpective from a fisherman that was there: link

 

There's a basic problem though in regard to the ideologica position and that of the TEA party that you have trumpted. You say you have never been against regulation and oversight yet one of the tenets of the TEA Party as outlined in the Contract from America is for a lot less government and more free market. A truly free market is one that has little to no regulation. If you are calling for more regulation that means that you will need more government and less of a free market.

 

Careful. You're about to puncture his paper thin ideology.

 

thanks for posting that, its crazy this guy was there when it happened, i wish he would have wrote more

 

http://www.csmonitor.com/CSM-Photo-Galleries/In-Pictures/Destructive-Oil-Spills

yes, it is from the christian science monitor, i didn't read the article, but it has 19 or so pictures of previous oil spills. i was amazed at the number of spills in the last year or 2 alone that i never heard anything about.

 

I was just watching an interview with the CEO of BP and he said this accident is unprecendented and represents the failure of several safeguards. Can those of you who work on these sort of things explain how unprecedented this is? Is this something that seems so out of the normal that contingencies weren't really even planned for?

 

Now many of you Know I have not been scared of Sadam's alleged wmd or Bush's mushroom clouds or Iran and its alleged desire to get nuclear weapons and attack the US which will lead to Iran becoming a parking lot, Al Qaeda and the Taliban , "terrorism" in general etc. etc. but this is scary.

Hopefully this guy doesn't know what he is talkng about. Please convince me so.

Mother of all gushers could kill Earth's oceans

Imagine a pipe 5 feet wide spewing crude oil like a fire hose from what could be the planets' largest, high-pressure oil and gas reserve. With the best technology available to man, the Deepwater Horizon rig popped a hole into that reserve and was overwhelmed. If this isn't contained, it could poison all the oceans of the world.

"Well if you say the fire hose has a 70,000 psi pump on the other end yes! No comparison here. The volume out rises geometrically with pressure. Its a squares function. Two times the pressure is 4 times the push. The Alaska pipeline is 4 feet in diameter and pushes with a lot less pressure. This situation in the Gulf of Mexico is stunning dangerous." -- Paul Noel (May 2, 2010)





Last night we received the following text in an email, author not identified. I passed it by Paul Noel, who is an expert in the field. His response follows thereafter. In calculating the gallons required to kill the oceans, remember that oil goes to the surface, where life is concentrated.

The Oil Mess

[...].

The original estimate was about 5,000 gallons of oil a day spilling into the ocean. Now they're saying 200,000 gallons a day. That's over a million gallons of crude oil a week!

I'm engineer with 25 years of experience. I've worked on some big projects with big machines. Maybe that's why this mess is so clear to me.

First, the BP platform was drilling for what they call deep oil. They go out where the ocean is about 5,000 feet deep and drill another 30,000 feet into the crust of the earth. This it right on the edge of what human technology can do. Well, this time they hit a pocket of oil at such high pressure that it burst all of their safety valves all the way up to the drilling rig and then caused the rig to explode and sink. Take a moment to grasp the import of that. The pressure behind this oil is so high that it destroyed the maximum effort of human science to contain it.

When the rig sank it flipped over and landed on top of the drill hole some 5,000 feet under the ocean.

Now they've got a hole in the ocean floor, 5,000 feet down with a wrecked oil drilling rig sitting on top of is spewing 200,000 barrels of oil a day into the ocean. Take a moment and consider that, will you!

First they have to get the oil rig off the hole to get at it in order to try to cap it. Do you know the level of effort it will take to move that wrecked oil rig, sitting under 5,000 feet of water? That operation alone would take years and hundreds of millions to accomplish. Then, how do you cap that hole in the muddy ocean floor? There just is no way. No way.

The only piece of human technology that might address this is a nuclear bomb. I'm not kidding. If they put a nuke down there in the right spot it might seal up the hole. Nothing short of that will work. [See Paul Noel's ideas above.]

If we can't cap that hole that oil is going to destroy the oceans of the world. It only takes one quart of motor oil to make 250,000 gallons of ocean water toxic to wildlife. Are you starting to get the magnitude of this?

We're so used to our politicians creating false crises to forward their criminal agendas that we aren't recognizing that we're staring straight into possibly the greatest disaster mankind will ever see. Imagine what happens if that oil keeps flowing until it destroys all life in the oceans of this planet. Who knows how big of a reservoir of oil is down there.

Not to mention that the oceans are critical to maintaining the proper oxygen level in the atmosphere for human life.

We're humped. Unless God steps in and fixes this. No human can. You can be sure of that.

http://pesn.com/2010/05/02/9501643_Mother_of_all_gushers_could_kill_Earths_oceans/

 

i briefly explained this in pg 1 or 2, it is a series of pipes laid within one another, the pipes circulate mud to keep the natural gas that is mixed with the oil under pressure, otherwise it can expand and explode, this is prob what happened, only there are several of these blowout preventors that should severe the connection, none of these worked and submarine robots failed to sever the connection

im still confused as to where the oil is leaking now, is it from the drillbit at the ocean floor? or is it from one of these blowout preventors floating somewhere between the surface and the ocean floor

 

Seriously, **** BP - their CEO, board of directors, and shareholders. **** every single one of them.

 

Thanks. Although is this somethign that would be so unprecedented that there are no contingencies for it?

 

A Blowout preventor is:
A large valve at the top of a well that may be closed if the drilling crew loses control of formation fluids. By closing this valve (usually operated remotely via hydraulic actuators), the drilling crew usually regains control of the reservoir, and procedures can then be initiated to increase the mud density until it is possible to open the BOP and retain pressure control of the formation. BOPs come in a variety of styles, sizes and pressure ratings. Some can effectively close over an open wellbore, some are designed to seal around tubular components in the well (drillpipe, casing or tubing) and others are fitted with hardened steel shearing surfaces that can actually cut through drillpipe. Since BOPs are critically important to the safety of the crew, the rig and the wellbore itself, BOPs are inspected, tested and refurbished at regular intervals determined by a combination of risk assessment, local practice, well type and legal requirements. BOP tests vary from daily function testing on critical wells to monthly or less frequent testing on wells thought to have low probability of well control problems.

http://www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com/Display.cfm?Term=blowout preventer


as i read more, it looks like most of these preventors are located on top of the well, but the images i saw a few days ago were floating, i am not too sure which kind the Horizon rig used

 

Outside of the blowout preventors, I'm not sure what else you can do technically speaking - typically those work very well.

From an "after the blowout" perpective, I guess BP could have planned better...but again, you're bloody limited in what you can do in response.

 

blowouts have occurred before, but they can be caused from many different things it looks like (btw i am not an engineer nor an engineering major so everything i say is from my own research into the subject) things, for instance there seems to be some concern over ceiling walls in the gulf of mexico causing blowouts, but that doesn't necessarily mean that is what happened here. i dont understand how these companies think they can control every factor, youre dealing with extremely high pressures, and currents as you attempt to drill miles into the ground but from a mile above the ground, its already such an amazing feat to be able to drill for oil at those depths, to be able to control them and ensure safety would just cost too damn much haha, jk but seriosly i dunno man, this stuff is crazy for something so catastrophic it is somewhat frustrating that we don't know more about it

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/uscgd8/4551846015/

there is a pic of the blowout preventer as they attempt to robotically shut if off

 

Spoiler