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re: Is the Integrity of the Well Failing?
Posted on 6/16/10 at 10:28 pm to redstick13
Posted on 6/16/10 at 10:28 pm to redstick13
When a well is completed the casing is perforated at the production zone and then the formations are intentionally hydraulically fractured.
0
Posted on 6/16/10 at 10:29 pm to redstick13
a 450ton bop is sitting on top of 12000ft of pipe and has uncontrolled flow through it. he isnt saying the formation is fractured, he is saying the well structure itself is fractured. and the uncontrolled flow coupled with the 450ton bop sitting on top of it is causing major internal problems. and the bop itself is slowly teetering over
perhaps you should read the article
perhaps you should read the article
Posted on 6/16/10 at 10:30 pm to Impotent Waffle
The well does have a leak somewhere. It doesn't matter where. You pump mud into the bottom... it is carried up. If you pump just a trickle by the time the first of the mud reaches the BOP the flow will be ever so slightly less because the weight of the mud is greater than the weight of the oil that it has replaced. Keep pumping and putting more and more mud into the flow steam and the flow continues to drop.
This wasn't possible with the top kill because the pressure outside the rupture was less and that is where the mud went. This isn't going to be a problem for the bottom kill. All they need to do is pump mud at a rate not even as much as oil is coming out and the flow will stop.
Bottom kill is much easier than top kill because you don't have to put mud up stream from the flow although that will probably happen anyway.
This wasn't possible with the top kill because the pressure outside the rupture was less and that is where the mud went. This isn't going to be a problem for the bottom kill. All they need to do is pump mud at a rate not even as much as oil is coming out and the flow will stop.
Bottom kill is much easier than top kill because you don't have to put mud up stream from the flow although that will probably happen anyway.
Posted on 6/16/10 at 10:36 pm to supatigah
Well first off his theory on why Top Kill failed is completely wrong. Top Kill didn't work because they were basically trying to bullhead a well without a closed BOP. It never had much of a chance at working because the mud simply took the path of least resistance, out the top of the well. His reasoning on why it didn't work is 100% incorrect. Also, Barite is not a white powder, it's brown.
Posted on 6/16/10 at 10:40 pm to omegaman66
pumping mud from the bottom and the mud will just flow out of the fractured casing holes into the formation. it will never make it into the well bore to build weight.
plus you are talking about plugging a well with what appears to be subsurface mechanical damage. so you are expecting to plug the well from the bottom and then the damaged casing has to hold. he says that bp appears to be afraid that plugging the well could cause the damaged casing to fail even further
plus you are talking about plugging a well with what appears to be subsurface mechanical damage. so you are expecting to plug the well from the bottom and then the damaged casing has to hold. he says that bp appears to be afraid that plugging the well could cause the damaged casing to fail even further
Posted on 6/16/10 at 10:42 pm to redstick13
Next we know the casing is leaking. We've known that from early on. It's the only way the well could have blown out the way it did. It's leaking around the 9 5/8 inch casing which covers the bottom 1,000 feet of open hole only. The gas is coming up inside of the larger casing strings and outside the 9 5/8 inch casing string.
Based on what I'm reading this is just another guy trying to scare people with a doom scenario. The relief well kill the well at the gas/oil bearing formation itself. It doesn't matter about fractures in this current well. The relief well will still work.
Based on what I'm reading this is just another guy trying to scare people with a doom scenario. The relief well kill the well at the gas/oil bearing formation itself. It doesn't matter about fractures in this current well. The relief well will still work.
Posted on 6/16/10 at 10:49 pm to redstick13
quote:
Well first off his theory on why Top Kill failed is completely wrong. Top Kill didn't work because they were basically trying to bullhead a well without a closed BOP. It never had much of a chance at working because the mud simply took the path of least resistance, out the top of the well. His reasoning on why it didn't work is 100% incorrect. Also, Barite is not a white powder, it's brown.
you might want to read it again
he is saying the top kill didnt work because they never actually tried it. they "tested" a top kill procedure by pumping mud into the wellbore to see how it flowed back. They didnt want to pump too hard because they felt like the casing could catastrophically rupture and the entire well bore could collapse
and fyi barite (Barium Sulfate - BaSO4) is actually white or colorless in its pure form, the "brown" barite is based on the impurities content. the more impurities in it the cheaper the barite
Posted on 6/16/10 at 10:53 pm to supatigah
I've been around barite for 20 years and I have never seen white barite. Not sure where you're getting your barite from.
Posted on 6/16/10 at 10:58 pm to redstick13
quote:
he is saying the top kill didnt work because they never actually tried it. they "tested" a top kill procedure by pumping mud into the wellbore to see how it flowed back. They didnt want to pump too hard because they felt like the casing could catastrophically rupture and the entire well bore could collapse
They weren't going to rupture anything with an open BOP stack. They didn't even have the luxury of a 5,000 foot hydrostatic head to the seafloor.
Posted on 6/16/10 at 10:59 pm to supatigah
The failure is between strings of casing. They couldn't kill it because they couldn't get enough pressure to overcome the flow of the well.
This dude afraid the wellbore will collapse and it will floww uncontrollably, then some other nut case wants to nuke it so the wellbore will collapse and seal it off. Go figure...
This dude afraid the wellbore will collapse and it will floww uncontrollably, then some other nut case wants to nuke it so the wellbore will collapse and seal it off. Go figure...
Posted on 6/16/10 at 11:00 pm to redstick13
quote:
The well bore structure is compromised "Down hole"
Well no joke captain obvious. The well blew out from around the outside of the casing.
Posted on 6/16/10 at 11:02 pm to redstick13
Another thing, do we even know if they used barite? The logical material to use would have been hematite because it has a higher specific gravity.
Posted on 6/16/10 at 11:04 pm to redstick13
i skimmed the article, but i think i got the gyst of it.
i'd have to say his scenario about the wellhead falling over is somewhat farfetched. this well has an extra string of casing at surface -- the 28" string -- that was cemented back to the mudline probably due to shallow gas hazards in the area. it also has a string of 22" casing that was cemented all the way back to the mudline as well.
this is all intended to provide the well w/ maximum bending moment resistance, so that in the event a rig begins to drift off location, the wellhead system will be strong enough to resist it and another component -- likely the lower flex joint on top of the BOP's or a surface component just below the rig floor -- will fail. when the horizon was adrift and ablaze, prior to sinking, it likely was imparting some kind of moment on the wellhead; however, when the rig sunk, the wellhead was likely spared a big bending moment by kinking of the riser above the BOP's.
he tries to connect the probable cementing issues associated w/ the 7" x 9 7/8" string to all of the other strings in the well, and that's really not a prudent logical leap. these are entirely different cement jobs w/ entirely different desired outcomes.
i'd have to say his scenario about the wellhead falling over is somewhat farfetched. this well has an extra string of casing at surface -- the 28" string -- that was cemented back to the mudline probably due to shallow gas hazards in the area. it also has a string of 22" casing that was cemented all the way back to the mudline as well.
this is all intended to provide the well w/ maximum bending moment resistance, so that in the event a rig begins to drift off location, the wellhead system will be strong enough to resist it and another component -- likely the lower flex joint on top of the BOP's or a surface component just below the rig floor -- will fail. when the horizon was adrift and ablaze, prior to sinking, it likely was imparting some kind of moment on the wellhead; however, when the rig sunk, the wellhead was likely spared a big bending moment by kinking of the riser above the BOP's.
he tries to connect the probable cementing issues associated w/ the 7" x 9 7/8" string to all of the other strings in the well, and that's really not a prudent logical leap. these are entirely different cement jobs w/ entirely different desired outcomes.
Posted on 6/16/10 at 11:05 pm to redstick13
Gotta throw in cottonseed hulls for LCM also!
Posted on 6/16/10 at 11:07 pm to Eauxkie Tiger
quote:
Gotta throw in cottonseed hulls for LCM also!
They don't seem to have much of a lost circulation problem right now.Posted on 6/16/10 at 11:08 pm to redstick13
Yep, I think they found it!
Posted on 6/16/10 at 11:11 pm to redstick13
lab grade barite (no impurities) is white
the browner (or greyer) the barite the more impurities there are
you are off on a tangent now
bp doesnt know how the well is actually flowing, they have all but admitted as such. they have theories but nothing concrete. This is why they havent tried to stab it to work through the well bore.
i dont really care about relief well theories or any of that. I know that the entire well bore is experiencing extreme erosion corrosion. This is causing metal stressing and if what he is saying about the bop teetering is true we wont know if the relief well will work because the bop and the first two sets of casing (36 and 22 inch) may have already collapsed
which would compromise the well bore structure and open the hole uncontrolled into the sea
the browner (or greyer) the barite the more impurities there are
you are off on a tangent now
bp doesnt know how the well is actually flowing, they have all but admitted as such. they have theories but nothing concrete. This is why they havent tried to stab it to work through the well bore.
i dont really care about relief well theories or any of that. I know that the entire well bore is experiencing extreme erosion corrosion. This is causing metal stressing and if what he is saying about the bop teetering is true we wont know if the relief well will work because the bop and the first two sets of casing (36 and 22 inch) may have already collapsed
which would compromise the well bore structure and open the hole uncontrolled into the sea
Posted on 6/16/10 at 11:17 pm to oilfieldtiger
quote:
when the horizon was adrift and ablaze, prior to sinking, it likely was imparting some kind of moment on the wellhead
you think so doctor?
quote:
however, when the rig sunk, the wellhead was likely spared a big bending moment by kinking of the riser above the BOP's
a big "bending moment" like an explosion that blew the rig's massive engines overboard?
Posted on 6/16/10 at 11:20 pm to supatigah
Are you always full of sunshine?
Scares the bejesus out of me.
Scares the bejesus out of me.
Posted on 6/16/10 at 11:21 pm to supatigah
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