Second pipe may have crippled BP well's defense mechanism

[n2doc]

Jim Tankersley, Tribune Washington Bureau
June 29, 2010 | 4:17 p.m.


Reporting from Washington — The gushing BP oil well is a mystery still unfolding, and late last month, a team of scientists from the Energy Department discovered a new twist: Their sophisticated imaging equipment detected not one but two drill pipes, side by side, inside the wreckage of the well's blowout preventer on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

BP officials said it was impossible. The Deepwater Horizon rig, which drilled the well, used a single pipe, connected in segments, to bore 13,000 feet below the ocean floor. But when workers cut into the wreckage to install a containment cap this month, sure enough, they found two pipes.

The discovery suggested that the force of the erupting petroleum from BP's well on April 20 was so violent that it sent pipe segments hurtling into the blowout preventer, like derailing freight cars.

It also offered a tantalizing theory for the failure of the well's last line of defense, the powerful pinchers called shear rams inside the blowout preventer that should have cut the pipe and stopped the rising oil and gas from reaching the Deepwater Horizon 5,000 feet above. Drilling experts say those rams, believed to be partially deployed, could have been thwarted by the presence of a second pipe.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/sc-dc-oil-spill-pipes-20100626,0,3996660.story

[rzemanfl]

1. Am I the only person to read this and the earlier New York Times

article and suspect we are being prepared for the failure of the relief wells/bottom kill?

[tekisui]

2. Plus Bill Clinton saying we needed to bomb it.

Nothing is a sure thing, not even the relief wells. They won't hit it on the first try, and each subsequent try will take at least two weeks.

I have been asking for about a month, what happens if the relief well fails?

[rzemanfl]

7. BP will recover as much oil as they can and sell it. My wife and I

will send the keys to our house to the bank, move back up north and eat the losses.

[DURHAM D]

12. Agree.

Bill would not answer the direct question about the relief wells. That really gave me pause as he changed the subject away from the questions.

I have known from the beginning that the relief wells are not a guarantee but I was trying to be optimistic because everyone else is/was.

I think Bill is aware that they have a bigger problem down hole than we have been told. I wonder if the W.H. and the oil czar (who is not even an oilman) even know they are still being played.

[applegrove]

3. I've noticed in the last two weeks that news announcers say they "hope" the

relief wells work...in some way.

[KittyWampus]

5. Would you rather hear them say they hope the relief wells "doesn't" work?

[metapunditedgy]

8. I'd rather hear them say they "hope" to see BP execs in prison soon. n/t

[applegrove]

9. Well no. I was just commenting that the idea the relief wells may not work is out there all of a

sudden. Which is worrisome. No?

[DURHAM D]

13. Agree completely. nt

[sad sally]

15. Hope is a town in Arkansas...

[Angry Dragon]

18. There is a New Hope in Minnesota

[KittyWampus]

4. it isn't "the" relief well. It's multiple. And it might very well take several attempts.

[rzemanfl]

6. I edited my post to make myself clearer. I find myself wondering

if this isn't still all about the oil and the hell with the Gulf of Mexico.

[obxhead]

10. Calling 2 multiple is slightly deceiving.

[DURHAM D]

14. only two have been started nt

[FBI_Un_Sub]

19. No you're not.

I think things are much worse then what BP has heretofore released.

[Urban Prairie]

11. All the secrecy, sluggishness of response and seemingly cavalier attitude about this catastrophe

from the POTUS on down is a bit unnerving and very worrisome, IMO.

But eventually time will certainly tell us if there is any chance of success with the "first" two relief wells, even if the PTB can't or won't provide us with much if any reassurance in this exceptionally grave and obviously worsening calamity.

[Coyote_Bandit]

16. +1,000,000 n/t

[Angry Dragon]

17. From what I have read about the man drilling the relief well

is that he has drilled 40 of them and has hit 40 the first time.

They say he is the best, kinda like Red Adair, in his field

[PJPhreak]

20. You mean this?

Bp knew this all along...if you look closely there TWO pipes in there!

edit to add: The consensus over at The Oil Drum is that Bullshitting Polluters know a Shitload more about the Mercado Well #2 at Mississippi Canyon (The Blowout) then they are ever gonna let on...Can you say "Making Civil Litigation Impossable" They Can and will do verything to Save their Asses (And those of their Shareholders)


PPS... notice it is well #2...they TOTALLY Fuckerd this puppy up on the first try...so like the greedy assholes they are they had to try again!

The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.