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2010-07-26 Economy

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Posted by Fred 2010-07-26 00:00|| || Front Page|| [1 views ] Top

#1 Why do they need to kill this well? Why not just take the oil out of it?

Posted by gorb 2010-07-26 00:47|| 2010-07-26 00:47|| Front Page Top

#2 Because under the base of this well, it is unstable and leaks horizontal under the rock beds.

Posted by newc 2010-07-26 05:23|| 2010-07-26 05:23|| Front Page Top

#3 But they'll get the oil, eventually?

Posted by Bobby 2010-07-26 05:53|| 2010-07-26 05:53|| Front Page Top

#4 I believe that's the purpose of the relief well they are currently drilling. It will be an alternate route for the oil to get out and then the current, leaky, hole can be stopped up. But we'll have to wait for one of our late sleeping ChemEs to awaken before we will know definitively.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2010-07-26 07:02|| 2010-07-26 07:02|| Front Page Top

#5 The current well cannot be produced. It is leaky and unsafe AT BEST, and facilities that have been used to capture some of the oil cost more to operate than the oil is worth.

The static kill is a variant of the initial 'Top Kill' attempt that failed; current belief is that the new cap they installed a couple of weeks ago will give this version a better chance to work. They seem to have changed their minds about damage to the shallow casing and leakage into shallow rock layers - sure hope they're right, but time will tell.

Relief wells are NOT intended to produce the oil. The first one is meant to drill into the blowout well a little above the oil-productive rock layer and allow heavy drill mud to be injected into the flow such that back pressure develops to stop the oil flow, and then follow it with cement. It should work with or without the static kill, but it should work with less risk if the static kill works. The second relief well is just a backup in case something goes wrong with the first one (that one might be redirected in the future to produce some of the reserves that didn't get blown out.)

Posted by Glenmore 2010-07-26 08:18|| 2010-07-26 08:18|| Front Page Top

#6 It would probably be extremely naive to hope that they would get to the point to where they could reenter and log the casing before they cement it. But oh boy! Wouldn't it be nice to know what actually did go wrong.

Posted by junkiron 2010-07-26 15:11|| 2010-07-26 15:11|| Front Page Top

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