BP Considers New Plan to Permanently Seal Well

Source: NY Times

As scientists on Monday allayed concerns that BP’s well in the Gulf of Mexico was damaged, the company said it was considering an alternative plan that could permanently seal the gusher sooner than had been anticipated.

Kent Wells, a senior vice president for BP, said the company was studying the possibility of a “static kill,” in which heavy mud would be pumped into the recently capped well. Also known as bullheading, the procedure would force the oil and gas back down into the reservoir.

“The static kill does give us a new option,” he said at a briefing in Houston. A decision to proceed could be made in several days, Mr. Wells said. He said that the procedure could speed the process of sealing the well and that the digging of a relief well, which has been seen as the ultimate solution and could be completed by August, might be needed only to confirm that the technique had worked.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/20/us/20oilspill.html?_r=1

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I am all for anything that will plug this gusher.. the sooner the better.

That system at the time had a leak - a gigantic gaping leak in the form of the top of the BOP that was wiiiiiide open.

Now they finally have that new cap and valve system on it that's actually sealed up the BP gusher (more or less.)

Which means that now, the capability is there to pump mud down under tremendous pressure, and have it not come out the top of the BOP.

Assuming the BOP and well casing don't rupture under the pressure...

Why now? Supposedly relief wells are almost done?

BP does not have a good history on these matters, so until I'm DAAAAAMNED sure they're not gonna fuck this up worse, I'm not in favor of this.

During the top kill they were trying to stop the flow of the oil with mud. The flow was simply to fast to be stopped that way.

With the cap on the flow has stopped and now the mud and cement would just be pushing the oil back down the well bore without fighting that extreme flow.

That's how I understand it anyway.

irreversible damage.

It's got the best chance of permanent sealing. Don't mess with the cap.

The question is can the damaged BOP, well casings, etc. handle that pressure?

I'm not an engineer, but I'd be wary about trying something like this until the engineers and scientists have crunched the numbers, ran the simulations, and have assurance that this will indeed kill the well and not cause another uncontrollable blowout.

no pun intended. But if the risk is low then I think its good idea to go for it and get this hole plugged ASAP.

Had the well not blown out, the BOP would have seen pressures like this during normal service. It is speculated the BOP failed due to faulty seals that were damaged by an accident during a test. The new cap has a new set of seals.

The mud keeps the oil down due to it's higher density and is standard in any well that is drilled. Another cause of the blowout was the removal of this mud as BP forced the well to be sealed quickly so the rig could move to a new site.

And there's also the fact that they were damaged during the blowout, so they might not be able to handle as much pressure as they used to. Right now, we're hearing news stories about seeps...

Oh, and not to mention that the blowout happened in the first place because the well and BOP were not put together correctly - bad cement jobs, not enough centralizers, BOP that didn't work, because BP was cheaping out...

Not to say that a top-kill from a now-sealed BOP & cap & stack won't work, but I'd prefer the engineers made damned sure that such an operation was safe before attempting it.

The engineers have been involved all along. The early attempts to shut the well down were known to be long shots, but it was felt it was worth it to try. As for the casing, mud is normally used to stabilize casings, so this may have a benefit. I guess we'll see...

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6753

some say too risky, others say its worth the risk.

:shrug:

The pressure in the well is roughly equalized with the very large reservoir. The relatively small volume of mud and grout they would be pushing into the system will cause very little increase in pressure, just enough to push the oil back down the hole. Maybe 100 psi more than is in the well already.

The "top kill" didn't work because they had to pump in mud fast enough to overcome the flow of oil, and couldn't do it. This could work since the oil is no longer moving, they just have to overcome the 7000psi pressure at the bop and can pump the mud in fairly slowly.

it might work but it concerns me there could be significant risks.

How about busting ass and getting the relief well finished and kill it.

tick...tick...tick...

Why don't they just keep it shut and continue with the relief wells?

the better.

BOOM by using this procedure.