Per CNN, new option to seal the well - Static Kill

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reported on Anderson Cooper

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I'm sure Obama and the "we" administration came up with the idea too.

Can't wait to see what this brings.


ETA: "Static Kill" sounds like a cool band name.

I listened to Kent's briefing. This is in the early planning stages so there weren't a lot of details. He said that a plan is being worked on and nothing is going to happen for a couple of days as they work up that plan. They have no approval from Unified to enact this plan yet.

What I gathered is that it's basically bullheading as Crash Dummy said. However they will do it at very low pressure. They will slowly pump mud down the kill line while recovering displaced HC from the choke line. They will be pumping very slowly at first so as not to raise the pressure much. As mud begins to displace the HC in the well, this will lower the pressure at the wellhead and they could pump faster at that point if they need to. They would have more "headroom" if you will. This is me reading in between the lines of what Kent said; he did not go to that level of detail. So take it with a grain of salt.

Mountain Tiger -

You always bring great explanations to these topics!

This one (Bullheading) actually does have a good chance of doing something positive. Much, much better than that "Top Kill" "Junk Shot" crude they started with.

they would probably do that to circulate kill weight mud down to the capping stack and have it available if needed during the relief well kill.

classic bullheading involves lining up on a well and pumping in, forcing everything that's in the well back into some formation. it is commonly used to kill old producing wells, as the pressures involved aren't very high and the casing is robust enugh to handle it. it is not commonly used during a kill during drilling operations because the high pressures involved can either burst casing strings that are not designed for that load, or can induce massive losses -- compounding the well control situation. (also, you have a drill string in the hole that allows you to circulate)

if the well is truly flowing up the 7" x 9 7/8" production casing, this may be a decent alternative; however, if it is flowing up the annulus behind the production casing, those strings would see higher pressure than during the shut-in. this would present a burst risk on the 22" and 16" strings.

you already have 6800 psi trapped beneath capping stack, which if you make a conservative estimate and assume it's backed up by SW gives you a differential pressure of 4460 psi and about 67% of the burst rating of the casing. when you start adding pressure to that mix in the form of heavy mud plus the pressure required to force fluids back in to the formation, you start walking a thin line.

ETA: i had a longer explanation here initially, but removed it as i had some assumptions in there that were probably more confusing than helpful.

Since the well has been shut in has it formed a gas head? Not sure if the pressure in the well is great enough to keep the gas in suspension with the oil. If so wouldn't the gas head greatly aid the static kill?

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I'm sure Obama and the "we" administration came up with the idea too

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You may be sure, but you are sure wrong.

BP. BP. BP. BP. the administration has not approved it.
many people think we should just wait for the relief well.
BP is afraid the casing will break, before the relief well is ready.

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after reading kent wells update from yesterday, it's not exactly clear what they're talking about doing -- whether it's straight bullheading of mud at low rate, but high pressure, or just circulating mud down to the wellhead in order to drive down to and across the stack in order to drive down the mudline pressure.

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I think the latter...at least that was my interpretation. But as I said before, details in that briefing were sketchy. I've heard this type of operation termed a "hesitation kill" or "pump and bleed".

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what is clear is that the concept is still not fully technically vetted within BP's shop, but it is being explored.

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Exactly right.