Good news, more here
From Reuters
BP said on Thursday no oil was leaking into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time since its huge spill began in April as it conducted pressure tests on its blown-out deep-sea well.
For the test, BP closed valves and vents on a tight-sealing containment cap installed atop its ruptured well earlier this week. Initial results early in the test showed the cap had completely contained the flow of oil, BP said.
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Energy ‘secreatary Chu said BP would save the planet 2 years ago.
It was stopped for the integrity test. Appears to be spewing again now on Boa Deep C ROV 1 live feed
http://www.bp.com/sectionbodycopy.do?categoryId=9034366&contentId=7063636
REPLY: They probably opened valves again
I think it was just mud kicked up by another ROV.
Will we see headlines “BP saves Gulf from oil Spill”. I doubt it. But we are hearing that Obama is trying to keep his emotions in check . Shouldn’t be too hard, he wasn’t all that upset in the first place.
dang our government isn’t as powerful as they thought they were…………
Why aren’t they taking the oil up to the ships above, instead of trying to shut off the flow?
Great that it held in the test, but it’s not nice to tempt Mother Nature.
[1] Is the three valve cap a brand new engineering technique? Looks like we all just learned something about managing off shore drilling in deep water. This may be useful for BP when drilling off shore of Brazil in more than 9000 feet of water.
REF: http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7060559
[2] A successful CAP will remove a useful “crisis” from the progressive agenda – ahh the wailing and gnashing of teeth can be heard from the other side of the world.
Slow and steady, no mistakes.
R U series?
Ingest 50/50 water/oil and gas mix and separate same in quantity at full, unrestricted volume flow?
R U series?
.
Many experts worry that the well casing below has been compromised. If so, the cap could result in a subsurface blowout, jettisoning oil through the ocean floor. They are monitoring pressure to ensure that the well stays at 8,000 psi or higher for 48 hours. This isn’t over by a long shot.
@kirkmyers says:
July 15, 2010 at 7:03 pm
“Many experts worry that the well casing below has been compromised. If so, the cap could result in a subsurface blowout, jettisoning oil through the ocean floor. They are monitoring pressure to ensure that the well stays at 8,000 psi or higher for 48 hours. This isn’t over by a long shot.”
According to http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6733#comment-677659, they were expecting about 9,000 psi but only reached about 6,700 psi. It was expected to go a little higher to maybe top out at about 7,000 psi, which may be inconclusive. The lower pressure may indicate a leak in the borehole or it may indicate that the formation has been depleted somewhat by running uncontrolled for so long and the reservoir pressure is no longer the 11,900 psi or so that was originally measured. The good news is that the cap is exceeding the 3,000 psi to 4,000 psi needed to help balance the relief well when the bottom kill is attempted. The relief well is about 5,000 feet higher than the Macondo well, because the mud would be pumped into the relief well from a rig floating at sea level and the Macondo well BOP is at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.
God, I hope this works. I love the Gulf and it’s been horrible to see this. On the upside, there was a huge blowout in the Mexican portion of the gulf in 1979, causing massive oil spills on beaches in South Texas (barrier islands), and the recovery was surprisingly fast. I’ve been going there for years and you would never suspect that anything like that had happened. I hope the coastal damage can be minimized here, but I don’t have much confidence in the feds.
Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi is drafting a 5320 page bill banning oil spills. Obama is expected to sign it. Somehow, a bailout of the Chinese is also included.
I found this interesting:
http://www.helium.com/items/1882339-doomsday-how-bp-gulf-disaster-may-have-triggered-a-world-killing-event
“Ominous reports are leaking past the BP Gulf salvage operation news blackout that the disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico may be about to reach biblical proportions.”
Have at it!
During the 2nd world war, an immense amount of oil was dumped into the oceans from military and civilian (cargo) ship losses due to combat. The oil disappeared within a few years due to natural dispersal effects.
Does this mean now that deep sea drilling can now be considered safe, as long as a spare cap is available somewhere somewhat nearby?
A curious thing – every time BP makes a step forward in dealing with the spill, instead of any positive response from the US media, there is always instead an uptick in abuse and recrimination against BP. The reason is that the deep south are so enjoying their racist lynching of BP that they are hoping for more pollution, not less.
How many times have we seen the single solitary oil-bedraggled pelican flopping around in a small beach enclosure, maybe anointed with the sump oil from a reporter’s car? One pelican! And on most beaches they are having to satisfy themselves with tar-balls.
The sense of disappointment and frustration on the US gulf coast is indeed palpable. But it is frustration with SO LITTLE OIL contamination. That is why any BP progress meets with such an angry response.
Oil spills in warm water always clear up rapidly due to bacterial degradation proceeding faster – some Arabian gulf spills of much larger magnitude were gone without trace within 2-3 years. When this happens in the gulf of Mexico it will deepen still further the rage and frustration. The MSM however will just keep on showing historic footage of the solitary celebrity pelican, just to keep the show on the road.
why did they not do this in the first place?
Phlogiston says : ‘A curious thing – every time BP makes a step forward in dealing with the spill, instead of any positive response from the US media, there is always instead an uptick in abuse and recrimination against BP. The reason is that the deep south are so enjoying their racist lynching of BP that they are hoping for more pollution, not less.’
Rings a bell! Every time any data shows that AGW effects are less than the ‘scientists’ expect, the warmists go into overdrive – their religion demands the end of the world and, by golly (is that PC?), the end of the world it shall be!
I congratulate BP so far. I am no supporter of them as there checkered history has been clear. Engineering know-how has so far succeeded. I sincerely hope that this situation will be resolved asap! However, the drilling company, Transocean, who was contracted by BP to do their bidding, & from who the drilling platform was leased, has very nicely slipped from view in all of this, barely a mention apart from the in the very early days, & BP has stood by them & taken all the flak from the politicos & MSM, when they could have easily played the Pontius Pilate card. As I understand it, it was Transocean who caused the problem, & who had not installed an operational “blowout preventer”. Will we see a true picture emerging from the debris or will this be a whitewash for the drilling company (who claim world expertise in deep sea exploration/production), & the noose for BP? It is just the same as me being engaged by a client because I claim world leading expertise in structural engineering skills, then when the building falls down half way throught the build due to a design fault, say it’s the client’s fault not mine! They should at least share the blame.
Watts Up With That? It’s ironical because the spill might be part of a larger plan to get us to pay more for watts aka energy.
Good news indeed.
I know that BP are mainly interested in exploring the carbon trading angles, burnishing their greeie image and giving handouts to enviro-activist groups.
But now they have quenched this enormous gusher, might they be able to use similar technology to quench the even greater (and far more damaging) flow of pseudo scientific scaremongeringing cAGW pollution from the politicians and academia???
Just wondering…..
Reading the comments on the linked article, and a few here, I am reminded why I once said “Give everyone a voice and you’ll discover they have nothing useful to say”.
Seriously, one guy says this was prophecied in 1954 as a forerunner to the rapture, others are worried that the pressure will crack the seabed open, some question the intellectual abilities of those handling this situation, and the obligatory “Blame Bush” post caps it off.
I am fascinated watching the politics at play in this medium sized spill. It’s bad, it was stupid, the events leading up to it were sadly predictable, and the people responsible are too busy pointing fingers at others to even consider the reality.
That poor pelican. So, how many dead birds is the average windmill responsible for?
Those poor beaches. So, how many natural seeps are there fouling up beaches?
Sorry, but my pity gland doesn’t work anymore. This was bad, but it’s no catastrophe, no matter how much some people want it to be (the loss of life was catastrophic to those killed and their families, and for that I feel bad). And when it’s all over, the guys who actually DO the work, whose job it is to be on call 24/7 to deal with these kinds of things will remain unsung, while some ignorant posturing politico will somehow take the credit.
In some ways this blowout was beneficial (with all due respect to those killed and injured on the platform)… several people who seemed relatively sane managed to “out” themselves as the nutjobs they are, and sales of Depends were up 15%.
On topic: I’m thrilled this particular test was successful… it’s sad to see so much product wasted in this manner. It won’t be long now before final close-up.
We don’t shut down the airline industry because of a fatal air crash.
We don’t shut down a highway because of a fatal car crash.
We don’t shut down the food industry because of a fatal outbreak of food poisoning.
We fix the problem and move on.
Off shore oil industry has drilled 50,000 wells since 1969, the year of the Santa Barbara spill. There have been 13 out of control wells until this latest. 6 of the 13 released less than 100 barrels of oil.
It is estimated the gulf handles a million barrels of oil a year from natural seepage.
See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/01/000127082228.htm
We know now that Santa Barbara leaks a lot of petroleum, naturally.
See http://www.isa.org/InTechTemplate.cfm?template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=76955
Trillions of bacteria are now digesting the oil from the BP oil well. Most of the oil is probably already consumed.
Prediction?
Six months from now we will be hard pressed to find any evidence of this spill.
I’m still waiting for the results of Dr. Joye’s analysis of the oil spill to see what is really going on.
See http://gulfblog.uga.edu/
The spill has been a blessing for the sea life in the gulf. Not only more food stock in the food web, but the most dangerous threat to fish, turtles, etc.; fishermen, have been taken off the seas for over three months.
Since a lot of economy in those parts is cash based, and therefore unreported, many of the fishermen will be unable to document any losses to BP. That’s OK; they already have gotten reimbursed through non-payment of taxes and other fees over the years.
I could be completely wrong of course. But I will guarantee one thing: we will not see any follow up stories from the media six months from now. There won’t be anything to report. The ‘greatest environmental disaster in American history’ will be forgotten as we move on to the Mel Gibson’s temper tantrum or Al Gore’s sex scandal or some lovely young thing showing off her physical assets (sorry, that’s boring. we’ve seen it all) or a famous sports figure’s ‘untimely’ death (How do you like George Steinbrenner’s tax dodge?) or whatever.
Not a word. Just like we’re not hearing a word about the cancellation of the end of the world because of AGW.
“Ominous reports are leaking past the BP Gulf salvage operation news blackout that the disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico may be about to reach biblical proportions.”
What, you mean the 1307-page report will be published as a pocket-sized leather-bound book on India paper? In two columns.