Questions about oil spill..

1) Do we know HOW many holes in the floor of the Gulf oil is pouring out from???..


... Now I hope we have some people on DU who can give a good answer to the next questions..


2) How long will it take to stop up the hole?? I am hearing some are at 10,000 feet!! Is that true??
I am hearing they plan to dig other wells to cut off the flow.. but that sounds like it will
take weeks to work.. Is that THE best answer?? weeks!! Sheesh!!

And since this has never happen (this deep) they have no way of knowing just how to fix it.

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nice phrase

"...also having a relief-well drilled to slow the leak, though experts say that could take up to three months..."

On the other hand, BBC is also downplaying the spill proportion to 5,000 bbs per day (if only that were true, bad enough as it would be...)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8656415.stm

well to siphon off the pressure.

Thats assuming that none of the other attempts to stem this don't work.

From http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/04/whats_going_on_beneath_the_sea.html

There are HEROIC efforts going on to try and close off that pipe. But the latest estimate is TWO MONTHS for even the most aggressive project.

This will be the largest environmental catastrophe of the latest 100 years of oil extraction. Even the EXXON Valdez or Ixtoc I spills will pale in comparison to this when it's over.

There's one hole. But the piece of pipe attached to it is leaking in several places. So it looks like several leaks. Wells are drilled using a blowout preventer. This device is attached to top of the well early on. Long before drilling reaches the pay-zone, the well is structurally sound and able to contain very high pressure. The Blowout preventer is a manifold with a series of valves and rams that are hydraulically operated. Even though the rig pipe is in the well and passes through it, the BOP is supposed to be able to cut it off and still close. At the top of the stack is an annular valve that can close off around a the pipe going up to the rig. It may be that the control mechanism was damaged on the rig. The Blowout Preventer did not secure the well. They are still trying to close it by using remote control submersibles.

A collecting arrangement is under construction. A plan is in place to sidetrack a hole to control the well below and plug the hole above.

Blowout preventers do not close automatically or by default. They are closed manually from a control station on the rig.

If I remember correctly they were in the process of pulling the drill pipe when the blow out occurred. The blowout preventer failed because a coupling was in the valve and it could not crush it. I could be wrong since that was 31 years ago.


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/deepwaterhorizon/6976966.html

http://www.mms.gov/tarprojects/311/311AA.pdf

Note the illustration on page 9 shows the hydraulic lines to the BOP attached to the riser pipe. A failure of the riser pipe could easily shear the controls. In addition, I wonder if they were using a BOP with an annular control at the top of the stack in the Ixtoc 1 situation. I have not been able yet to find out.

He said that he thought BP had not installed the devises that are designed to shear the pipe at the BOP and close off the well.


http://oilgasglossary.com/shear-ram.html

I'm no scientist, obviously. :-)