Progress on Relief wells

BP sure does put out nice graphics.

From someone that is definitely in the know, the relief well solution will not stem the leak for 60-90 days. Better hope one of these bandaids works in the interim.

Antoher dumb question from someone who isn't in the industry. Why do they need to intersect both relief wells at the same point? Could one have been intersected at 5,000 - 10,000 ft and let the second one go down as far as they are showing? That way at least one of the wells intersects a lot sooner to stop the leak.

It's a testament to the amazing technology that you can drill to a depth of 3 and a half miles and expect to intersect what I think is a 7 inch diameter pipe.

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It's amazing technology that you can drill to a depth of 3 and a half miles and expect to intersect what I think is a 7 inch diameter pipe. Yet cant stop a leak 25 days and counting

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That's a testament to the belief that regulations are bad and unnecessary because the invisible hand of the one true god of free markets will make this impossible to happen.

if you intersect at say 10,000', w/ the formation at 18,000' and the well still open to the gulf at the seafloor, it would be pretty much impossible to kill.

you need to hit it deep, then circulate around appropriately heavy mud throughout the blowout well in order to get it balanced again and stop the flow.

for example -- they TD'd the well w/ 14.0 ppg at 18300' = 13300 psi bottom hole pressure (bhp). so to get the well under control, you'll need to put fluids in place that result in that bhp.

the problem is that you can't do anything about the 5000' of seawater from the wellhead to the surface -- whereas during drilling you had 14 ppg mud from the surface all the way to TD.

so to get 13300 psi down at TD, you need to circulate in a heavier weight mud to compensate for seawater. this works out to 16 ppg:

(16 ppg x (5000' - 18300') + 5000' x 8.6) x 0.52 = 13300 psi.

so you're able to circulate all of the light oil out of the well and replace it w/ 16 ppg mud (or something like it) back to the mudline. this would be a kill weight mud and would be followed w/ large volumes of cement to provide permanent isolation.

now, let's say you intersected the well at 10,000'. First, the pressure at 10,000' is heavily effected by the oil flowing in the well and will be quite high. so upon enterring the blowout well w/ the relief well, you would likely end up w/ an untenable situation there.

a typical oil gradiet is 0.3 psi / ft, so the pressure at 10,000' is 10,800 psi -- which works out to a 21 ppg mud weight needed in the relief well upon enterring, which i'm certain it could not handle.

Plus, now you would be attempting to begin the kill at 10,000', so the mudweight that would be required to balance out the well -- remember that you have seawater for 5000' like before -- would be something like this:

10,800 psi - 5000' x 8.6 ppg x .052 = 8564 psi from mud circulated into he well from 10000' to the mudline.

8564 psi from 10,000' to 5,000' -> 33 ppg fluid -- which does not exist.

i'm obviously being very simplistic here to illustrate the point. in reality, when they enter the existing well, i'm certain they'll start pumping kill weight mud at balls to the wall along w/ all kinds of other additives to get all of the oil out and proceed w/ cementing.

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Simple question - they are drilling to intersect the original hole (pipe)---- how do they "get into" the original pipe? is it another cutting drill- bit-tool cutting into the original? If so I assume they have the intersecting pipes already filled with whatever they are going to pack it with? (Sorry for the dumb questions.)

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It's a testament to the amazing technology that you can drill to a depth of 3 and a half miles and expect to intersect what I think is a 7 inch diameter pipe.

They do not have to cut the pipe. I have worked on a couple of relief wells in my directional drilling career. The bit must be directed to an extremely close point ( within a few ft )in the flowing resovoir.
A kill weight mud ( overbalance for the resovoir pressure ) will be pumped, may have to be squeezed, or forced in. After the flow has been killed, large volumes of cement will be pumped to permanently seal the flowing formation. I would think the second well would be drilled to confirm, remediate any other additional pressure control. I don't think they know at this point if the flow is coming through the casing annullus or the outside of the casing string.

The technology is amazing. I am on a rig offshore California at the present. We are drilling with a Schlumberger rotary steering tool at 87 deg inclination. These wells are called extended reach,going 25k to 34k feet from the platform. Complete control of azimuth direction and inclination can be obtained with this tool. Corrections are easily obtained by giving surface commands to the downhole tools for inclination and azimuth control.

Hope this is helpful.

the 2nd well may be a contingency -- in case they run into an unknown problem and experience significant delays w/ the 1st. also, it may take two wells (and two rigs) working simultaneously to pump fast enough to execute the dynamic kill on the blowout.

my suspision is they feel like they can execute the dynamic kill using a single well, but want the second well in place if it proves necessary.

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I am on a rig offshore California at the present.

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Didn't think there was any drilling on the west coast?

A personal friend of mine is the directional driller on both 36 inch casing sets on the relief wells. He e-mailed me yesterday. We were discussing the chemical dispersements. BM is the best of the best. I have worked with him before. Just sayin.