BP Gulf Oil Leak Well-Head Repair … an anthology part IV – UPDATED

See update at the end of the post. I found a video of BP setting the 3 Ram Capping Stack; see the end of this post.

This is the forth in a series of posts I’ve written regarding BP’s efforts to stop the flow of oil and gas from their Macondo Well located in the Gulf of Mexico about 40 miles offshore from Louisiana. The 1st can be found here, the 2nd here and the 3rd post here. BP’s web page devoted to their response is here and from there you can access all of their resources including access to the video feeds from the cameras on the ROVs here.

On the last link, BP changed its page layout yesterday to show thumbnail views all the ROV feeds rather than a text list, making it much much easier to determine which ROV is in operation and where it is …

BP's ROV camera links page

There are a number of video and audio presentations on BP’s web site as well as copies of presentations and transcripts of meetings and conference calls, but there is one video in particular that provides a good overview of the process I’ve been walking through in my posts for the last couple of days. That video is available here.

Yesterday I left off at the point where BP had installed the Flange Transition Spool, the section of pipe that allows BP to connect a new BOP (Blowout Perventer) to the top of the well. BP is calling this new BOP the “3 Ram Capping Stack” and I’ve included a shot of it in the image below:

3 Ram Capping Stack being transported to the well site

This device, including the HC Connector at the bottom that allows it to quickly couple onto the top of the Flange Transition Spool, is about 18 feet tall and weighs around 150,000 pounds. Work seems to get in the way of fun, so of course I was off at a meeting when BP actually landed the 3 Ram Stack onto the FTS. My first view of the scene was …

3 Ram Stack in place

The HC Connector is a hydraulic/mechanical connector, so it took less than 30 minutes from the time the Stack was landed to complete the connection. At that point, there were many hours of testing to insure the 3 Ram Stack was still operating correctly. I have many screen caps that I won’t bore you with; besides I couldn’t tell you what was actually happening anyway.

Beginning today, BP will begin to shut down the oil flow through the well while at the same time monitoring the pressures within the well. Ideally, once the well is completely shut down and there is no more oil flow, the pressures will reach and then remain at somewhere around 8,000 PSI. If that happens, BP will be able to surmise that they can shut down the well in the event of a hurricane, causing the ships to have to leave the area. If pressures begin dropping off, that will tell them that the oil is escaping somewhere else; possibly to another underground reservoir, but it also could be heading to the sea floor through another path. That last possibility hopefully won’t happen.

Regardless of the outcome of the pressure testing, BP will continue completion of Relief Well #1, which was only a few feet away from the Macondo well as of this afternoon. The schedule is to complete this well by the end of July and then begin what is referred to as “bottom kill.” BP will begin to pump large volumes of what is called “heavy drilling mud” into the relief well. The mud will then be forced up the Macondo well by the oil flow. If all goes as expected, the mud will begin to choke off the Macondo well due to the viscosity and the weight of the mud relative to the oil. Their plan is to have the Macondo well completely shut down, or “killed” by mid August.

Now on to lighter fair. There is one shot I would like to show you that I found cool …

A fish checking out the action ... at 5,000 feet!

I have only seen fish on a couple of occasions and this was the only one I grabbed a shot of.

The Bottom Line

BP screwed up big time and they are at fault in this disaster, costing the lives of 11 men and causing a massive environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. However, while I can’t speak to their actions on the ground, the beaches, the bays or the bayous, I’ve been listening to the technical conferences BP has twice a day and in my humble opinion, BP is doing a great job of getting the well capped and ending this nightmare. It is clear to me that their plan was well thought out, each element was tested to every extent possible and so far has been professionally executed. Great job on the repair phase so far, BP!

The US Government, on the other hand, has been asleep at the switch since day one! Actually, before day one … the agency that was supposed to be overseeing off-shore drilling operations such as this was unfortunately acting just like so many other government bureaucracies; incompetently.

The failure of the Offshore Energy and Minerals Management Agency to provide the necessary oversight of the Deepwater Horizon, which exploded and sank and led to where we are today is all too typical of these bloated, bureaucratic government behemoths.

Tomorrow I’ll continue this rant, getting into all the stumbling and bumbling that has taken place since April 20.

UPDATE 20100713 19:02 PDT: BP just posted a more detailed explanation of the test they are preforming as I write.

UPDATE 20100714 19:00 PDT: I found a video of BP setting the capping stack onto the top of the Flange Transition Tool;

Amazing!

Related posts:

1. BP Gulf Oil Leak Well-Head Repair … an anthology part V – UPDATED
2. BP Gulf Oil Leak Well-Head Repair … an anthology III
3. BP Gulf Oil Leak Well-Head Repair … an anthology part VII
4. BP Gulf Oil Leak Well-Head Repair … an anthology II