Oil leak in Lafitte

This'll be a lot easier to stop

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Why did they not already have a relief well drilled in case something like this happened??

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Sarcasm???




i hope

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This'll be a lot easier to stop

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I know. It just sucks because they just opened that area up not long ago which is right by my camp and hunting lease. Actually no visable damage in that area from teh rig spill. Now some little well may close it again.

Good thing is there is a lot of oil cleaning equipment in the area.

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Good thing is there is a lot of oil cleaning equipment in the area.

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i actually laughed when I saw VOOs were already on the scene

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He said officials are not sure who owns the well.

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How in the hell is this possible?

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How in the hell is this possible?

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There are probably hundreds of old well heads within a mile of this one. Most of them have been abandoned for years.

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The floatel i'm on is about a half mile from this leak

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Do you know where at in Bayou St Denis this well was at?

per nola.com

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Response to the incident is being handled by federal authorities because the wellhead, which is owned by CEDYCO Corporation of Houston is considered "orphaned" because the company is now defunct, said Deano Bonano, the Jefferson Parish chief of homeland security. Authorities are using funds from the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund to pay for the cleanup operations, and have hired a Harahan company to cap and plug the damaged wellhead, Arenstam said.

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This is one of the well that was talked about in this article a few weeks ago.

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actually, this appears to be a different situation.

an "abandoned well", whether it's considered temporarily or permanently abandoned, has at least one barrier installed and tested isolating the productive interval. additional steps are required to permanently abandon a well -- additional barriers installed (in the form of plugs and cement) and finally cutting the wellhead off beneath the mudline.

This well is orphaned, in that it doesn't appear to be abandoned, is not producing, and is owned by a defunct company. it likely was drilled by a larger company many, many years ago and has exchanged hands numerous times since then. typically when these sales take place the purchasing company is required to post a bond for the P&A (plug and abandonment) of wells; however, as you get further down the long tail that may not be the case.

in any event, there are measures that should be in place to mitigate an event like this, where a barge runs into a well that is capable of producing. in federal waters, a surface controlled subsurface safety valve must be installed below the mudline and tested monthly, which would shut in a well below the mudline in the event the wellhead is knocked off -- there's no electronics or anything involved here, strictly hydraulics, you lose pressure due to a catastrophic event, it shuts. These valves have performed very, very well, and were responsible for isolating a great many wells whose platforms were toppled during katrina, rita, etc.

this well lies in state waters where the SCSSV isn't explicity required; however, some means of isolation in this event is. that role is typically filled by a storm choke -- basically a valve that will function based on pressure drop. you knock a wellhead off and there's a much higher than normal flowrate through the valve, it trips and shuts like a check valve. evidently this was not installed, or not installed properly.

I wouldn't be surprised if more of this doesn't happen before this is over. Too many captains in unfamiliar waters helping with the clean up.