I think their concern is the valves may cause back pressure down towards the reservoir. It would not be a good thing if the valves were closed and the reservoir pressure caused the oil to fissure outside of the well string.

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Posted by omegaman66

greenwell springs

Member since Oct 2007

22797 posts

Posted on 6/5/10 at 6:32 pm to GeauxDeep

The situaton going in was they apparently need lots of pressure if they plan to move a significant volume of oil to the ship. To get the pressure they need a good fairly decent seal.

As long as there is oil coming out the bottom then the seal isn't perfect.

How much oil comes out the bottom is a reflection of success but only to a point. The amount of oil we see could look similiar even when things improve or get worse.

Close and valve on top and pressure will increase and we will see more oil going to the ship but also more going out the bottom of the top hat.

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Posted by MountainTiger

The foot of Mt. Belzoni

Member since Dec 2008

14680 posts

Posted on 6/5/10 at 7:26 pm to GeauxDeep

quote:
I think their concern is the valves may cause back pressure down towards the reservoir. It would not be a good thing if the valves were closed and the reservoir pressure caused the oil to fissure outside of the well string.

That's not possible. The pressure of the fluid coming out of the top hat is at 0 psi gage pressure (i.e., relative to the surrounding water). If they close the valves, that only means that more oil will flow up into the new riser. The concern is that water will also get into the top hat without some back flow from the oil. But that's crazy. If they weren't going to close the vents, then why bother with the top hat in the first place?

This post was edited on 6/5/10 at 7:33 pm

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