Relief wells: It took FIVE to shut down a similar spill last year (NYT)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/03/us/03montara.html

May 2, 2010
Relief Well Was Used to Halt Australian Spill
By KEITH BRADSHER

HONG KONG — While BP tries various short-term efforts to plug a leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, the company is preparing to drill a relief well as a backup plan. BP hopes to drill that well diagonally to intersect the original one below the seabed and then flood it with mud and concrete to stop the uncontrolled flow.

Although the idea sounds simple, the experience with a similar spill last year near Australia shows just how difficult it can be to execute the maneuver. “It’s like finding a needle in a haystack,” said Rachel Siewert, an Australian senator who is a member of the country’s opposition Greens Party and is critical of the oil industry.

The Australian accident, known as the Montara spill, began Aug. 21 with a blowout of high-pressure oil similar to the one in the gulf. With the well spewing 17,000 to 85,000 gallons per day, precious weeks passed before the relief wells were started. When efforts got under way, the first four attempts — drilled on Oct. 6, 13, 17 and 24 — missed the original well.

A fifth attempt finally intersected the original on Nov. 1, and about 3,400 barrels of heavy mud were pumped through the relief well into the base of the original well. The spewing oil finally stopped Nov. 3 — more than 10 weeks after the original explosion...

The drilling team was trying to hit a well casing less than 10 inches in diameter at a depth 1.6 miles below the seabed, according to testimony this spring before an Australian government commission of inquiry. The BP well has an even skinnier casing, reportedly measuring seven inches in diameter...

and no amount amount griping is likely to change that.

which caused the blowout. This would be a pattern of criminal activity by the oil companies. Oh, I forgot! We don't do prosecutions anymore. Do what the fuck you want. But don't grow pot. The AG will be after you!