i need a synopsis

Sadly 11 dead ... now finding out there were problems I think not caught by the government programs that were supposed to inspect.

Basically, oil is spewing and the things that they've tried haven't really worked ... having to drill a relief well to stop this thing.

In total, it sucks and the oil is getting into the Lousiana marshes.

Others can tell you much more than that ...

Response Team

W/ the rig ablaze, an effort was made to function the BOP's to shut in the well, then an effort was made to execute an emergency disconnect and release the rig from the wellhead, then an effort was made to shut in the well using ROV's to close the blind shear rams on the BOP stack. All of these efforts failed. BOP systems have an auto-shear functionality that should have also kicked in, automatically shearing the pipe and shutting in the well in the event the BOP has lost all communication w/ the surface. This did not occur as well.

There have been reports that the BOP stack had issues w/ 1 of the 2 redudant control modules subsea (the "pod"), that there was a hydraulic leak within the stack (i haven't seen any specifics on this), and that the rubber, annular preventer was damaged prior to this event -- which does not appear to have influenced the functionality of the blind shear rams.

Blind Shear Rams are designed to both cut the drill string that is across the BOP stack, then hold pressure from below and are designed to be used in just such an emergency.

continued

2 relief wells are planned to be drilled to intercept the blowout well at or near the top of the producing formation. The first of these is being drilled by the Transocean Development Driller II and is underway. 90-100 days is expected for this to be executed.

Soon, BP will attempt to contain the well via a "top kill" whereby heavy drilling mud will be pumped down the top of the well. ROV's have reconfigured parts of the BOP's to allow access into the well where there typically is none, and hopefully it will allow high density fluids to be pumped at high rate.

This would potentially allow BP to regain control of the well and stop the flow. the well will be permanently abandoned as part of the relief well operations.

I am a layman. I will give you the dumb layman version as I understand it, with little tech talk and no abbreviations.

when the well was nearly completed, execs from BP were on the rig to celebrate many years of safe operation of BP.

there was an equipment test. the test indicated a possible leak in equipment.
another test was done of the same kind a couple hours later. the 2nd test also indicated a possible leak.

For reasons I can't fathom, 15 minutes later, they went ahead and turned on the system, intending to start production, and ignored the leak possibilities.

methane hydrates, gas in solid form, frozen due to the temperature at such depth, entered the pipe.

How did the hydrates get in the system?
You would have to be able to answer the question, why did the 2 tests both indicate "possible" leaks?
When they turned on the system, the hydrates were either sucked into the leak location by the flowing uprise of oil and gas or maybe they had already got into the system. I will let the experts dazzle you with those explanations.

THERE WAS A CURING CEMENT element in the process. The curing CEMENT HEATED THE HYDRATES. SOme people say, they rushed to production and should have let the cement cure longer.
in any case, however they got in, then the HEATED hydrates rose up, inside the pipe, and expanded rapidly as they warmed and melted becoming a gas. ratio of 1 to 168, solid hydrate to gas.

The expanding 1 to 168 volume of gas went up the pipe blowing out some safety barriers as it rose. When it got into the rig, it was ignited by an exposed electrical switch.
blew up in a fire ball. 11 men died in the flames. I believe they are still missing in action. 120 got off alive, a few injured.

attempts to shut down the pipe failed due to incredible combinations of possibilities.
1. a battery which was supposed to drive a shut off mechanism was dead. dead battery.
2. a device which was also supposed to shut off the pipe was not able to, because it had been modified into a test machine.

without the barriers, which the gas blew past, the oil and gas deep down in the oil field, came up the pipe. its still coming up.

There were tries over the past month to control the flow with huge contraptions like a hat to sit over the well head, and they failed.

right this minute, there is a 4" tube inserted into the big 21" pipe, and they are able to get a semblance of control.
They are planning to put something around the tube and stem the flow even more.

Meanwhile they are drilling a new well, to intercept the pipe before it reaches to the broken pipe. Then they can get normal control again.

You can read the technical description on the pinned posts by experts.

The simple story is that they ignored warnings and went ahead anyway. Then when they realized they were in deep trouble, they failed to stop it with usual means, due to the errors I mentioned.
Now, there is a plume of oil headed to the Florida keys, deep under water. It is caught up in the gulf stream. In the keys, there is a coral reef that is in harms way. Its supposed to get there in 11 days. Meanwhile, every day, more oil will be entering the gulf stream. the main current "loop" of the gulf stream is several miles south of the incident location, and just a mere swirl of oil, is being pulled into the "loop" of the gulf stream. its not much % wise, but there is so much to source from and there is no stopping it, under water. It will go on like this as long as there is anything in the water. Months. and that will go to Florida. And the bahamas, and North Carolina. and the sargasso sea in the middle of the atlantic, which is to say, some very delicate eco systems. the oil disperses naturally and most of it will disperse.
some wont. BP is also putting chemical dispersants in the water at the well head, to disperse as much as possible.
Louisiana has been utterly blessed. most of the oil spill is standing off shore. the wind and current have not pushed it into the bayous, thank God. Lots of people in my church have been praying that the oil stays off shore, every day for weeks.

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another test was done of the same kind a couple hours later. the 2nd test also indicated a possible leak.

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this is speculation. the tests were deemed "unacceptable". the test could have been executed improperly or not properly simulated the conditions they were about to encountered. as i have said as nauseum, it is impossible to deduce what happened w/ this test if you don't know the fluid densities involved.

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they went ahead and turned on the system, intending to start production

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this is false. this well was never going to be produced to the rig deepwater horizon. it could not produce, as the oil & gas they just found was isolated (they thought) by casing and cement. a rig was going to have to return to this location at a later date to perform the completion -- i.e. install the equipment for the well to produce.

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How did the hydrates get in the system?

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Hydrates form when methane and water come in contact in the right pressure environment. they are a well understood part of doing work subsea. hydrate formation had nothing to do w/ the initial blowout; however, it has had a major effect on the efforts to put some kind of containment at the mudline. the heat of hydration from curing cement had even less to do w/ it.

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oilfieldtiger

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Only-I thought they decided to not try the tophat, and just set in on the seafloor while they tried the insertion tube.

uummm... Lafourche has it now. Grand Isle and Caminata pass had oil this morning. It is worse than you think

and this is just the very beginning. Much more oil exists beneath the surface of the water.

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impact to marshland is greater than just a few small areas in plaquemines parish and to say Louisiana has been utterly blessed is assenine

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I know now. things changed. I saw it on tv.

thanks.