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

Updated info at the end of the post

It was my expectation that today I’d be reporting on the progress of the stack test and then be moving on to expand on the rant I began at the end of my last post. Alas … not gunna’ happen. AP released a story this morning indicating that the government was treading “cautiously:”

An administration official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the talks with BP, said the government was acting out of “abundance of caution” and didn’t want potentially dangerous pressure tests on a tighter containment cap that has been placed over the well to go ahead until BP answers questions about possible risks.

This has been the government’s problem since they finally realized the Deepwater Horizon explosion and sinking was in fact a big deal. No one in the Administration knows what they’re doing, so rather than trust the experts, “let’s just stop everything, sit down and contemplate our navels until the right answer jumps into our laps!”

Meanwhile:

Oil continues to flow out the top of the 3 Ram Stack

UPDATE 20100714 13:35 PDT: BP has now postponed their regularly scheduled afternoon technical conference call … twice . No new time has been provided … yet!

UPDATE II 20100714 15:45 PDT: This afternoon’s delayed briefing just concluded. While there was a lot of “we’re working closely with go’mnt  scientist” and other such blather, Kent Wells walked through the process BP was getting ready to undertake to conduct the well integrity test. As he was speaking, BP began shutting off the top valve, which diverted oil flow from the discharge out the top of the stack as in the image above. Oil began flowing from ports on two sides of the capping stack as seen in the image below:

Top valve on Capping Stack is closed, diverting oil flow to side ports

Work will continue for the next couple of hours to close the remaining valves. BP will be intently watching the pressure in the well casing, which hopefully will rise to between 8,000 and 9,000 PSI and hold steady. As I wrote in yesterday’s post, should the pressure begin to drop, that will indicate the integrity of the well is compromised and they will not be able to close in the well. At that point they will connect the top discharge connection to the collection system and begin recovering the oil and gas with the recovery vessels on the surface.

Pray the capping stack works!

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!

BP Gulf Oil Leak Well-Head Repair … an anthology III

Sunday morning (7/11/2010) finds the Flange Transition Spool (FTS) already hanging near the well head as preparations are underway to make the installation:

Flange Transition Spool being prepared for installation

I am unsure what the tool is in the foreground. It was on screen in the shot above as I logged on Sunday morning and I didn’t notice it after a short while. Notice in this shot there are three ROVs … the lights off in the gloom to the right of the view, the glow of lights behind the mechanical arm (upper left) and the ROV holding the tool.

Well stack w/o old flange

The image above shows the bottom flange, sans the old top flange removed in the early hours of the morning. Note to the right the white, inverted “u” dispersant injector has been reinserted directly into the well

The method BP is going to use to guide the FTS into the correct orientation above the well flange is through the use of tapered dowels that fit into holes in the flange made for that purpose. You can clearly see the dowels in the image below.

Left image - guide dowels built into the bottom flange of the FTS (click to see a larger image)

However, BP is using a clever way of making sure they are able to find the correct holes for the dowels. In the image on the left above, note the slim cables attached to the bottom of each tapered dowel; the ROV operator threaded each of these cables into the correct hole in the bottom flange prior to moving the FTS into position. By keeping tension on these cables, the FTS will be guided into the correct orientation even though the view will be blocked by the oil plume once the FTS is positioned within the plume.

Flange Transition Spool being moved into position adjacent to the well (click image to see an enlarged version)

The images above show two views as the Flange Transition Spool continues into position above the well.

BTW … I believe these two images are from ROVs controlled by another support vessel, the Boa Deep C, though I haven’t found that ship in the readily available information on BP’s site. These two ROV’s continue installing the FTS.

FTS close to the well

Above, the FTS getting closer to the well. The images below show the FTS in the plume, being positioned directly over the well. Note the tapered dowel and the cable being pulled taught by another ROV somewhere off camera.

FTS within the oil plume, directly above the well

In the next shots the FTS is in position and being lowered onto the well-head flange:

FTS being lowered onto the well-head flange (click for larger image)

Things are looking good!

A

FTS almost in place

Just a litttttttle bit more to go ….

Almost there ...

But it’s stuck. They take a closer look …

Why won't it drop further?

Okay … let’s try to raise it up slightly and then put it back down …

Raise the FTS ... just a bit

Okay … now lower it again and let’s see if it will seat itself:

FTS seated all the way! (click on image for a larger version)

Next, remove the external sleeves that held the bolts in place and begin screwing each into the lower flange.

Removing sleeves from flange bolts

Note the string attached to the white sleeve wrapped around each bolt … the ROV operator grabs the string and gives it a jerk and the sleeve pops off, allowing the bolt to fall all the way into the hole until it hits the threads.

Flange bolt sleeve removal

As before with the removal of the bolts, the ROV operator places each of the removed sleeves onto a tray on the old BOP (blowout preventer)

Stowing the bolt sleeves

Each bolt is then “hand” tightened:

"Hand" tighting the bolts

At this point I had plans to visit some friends, so I left. When I returned, I wasn’t really sure what it was I was watching, but after a few minutes I guessed that another type of hydraulic socket tool was …

Hydraulic tool to fully tighten the bolts

… torquing down the bolts. As you watched, the ROV camera would watch as the operator placed the tool on a bolt and then the view would switch to …

Monitoring the hydraulic pressure gague

A pressure gauge. As you watched, the gauge would move from zero up to more than ….

Hydraulic pressure torquing the bolts

… 6,000 PSI (pounds per square inch). The operator would drop the pressure then reapply several times before moving to the next bolt. It seems that the highest pressure reached on each bolt was around 6.600 PIS or so. I didn’t follow every step, but it appeared the operator torqued each blot at least twice. I’m not sure how many foot-pounds relates to 6.600 PSI, but I bet it’s more than what I used to torque the head bolts too on my 427 cubic inch Chevy I had in my flat bottom ski boat!

The last operation I watched last night was something I didn’t understand. An ROV holding some sort of an instrument moved to the base of the well casing where it came out of the sea floor …

Instrument at the sea floor

The instrument was placed against the casing as shown in the image below …

Test instrument placed against the well casing

The instrument was held in place for several minutes, then moved 90 degrees and the process repeated for a total of four times. My first thought was that it was some kind of ultrasonic flow measuring device, but the ones I’m familiar with require sensors on both sides of the pipe, and for such a large diameter pipe, the sensors would be much longer.

I then assumed the instrument was some sort of device that measured the stress on each quadrant of the casing to insure the added weight of the Flange Transition Spool wasn’t causing undue stress on the casing. However, when completed at the bottom of the stack, the ROV relocated to …

Instrument placed in the oil plume ...

… the top of the stack and put the instrument directly into the oil plume! Some kind of flow measurement device?

Things began to slow down, so I called it a night. I’ll pick up with Monday morning’s activities in the next post.

BP Gulf Oil Leak Well-Head Repair … an anthology II

So … last night we left off at the point where BP was removing the flange bolts using a hydraulic socket wrench.

View of the hydraulic socket tool on one of the flange bolts

Notice the bolt to the right of the one with the wrench (not the larger object directly adjacent to the bolt the socket is on … I believe that is an alignment pin, but certainly not a bolt head. I’m referring to the second object to the right of the bolt that the socket is on). It appears the flat surfaces have at some point been damaged. The image below provides a better view:

Bolt on the right shows damage to a couple of its hex surfaces

Not to worry! Just go to your trusty tool box and bring out the Dremal rotary tool … an industrial strength Dremal if I do say so!

Industrial strength Dremal rotary tool being used to grind burrs off of hex bolt in image on the left (click on image to see an enlarged version)

Below is a second view of the grinder seen from both ROV cameras:

Grinder seen from both ROVs (click image to enlarge)

The next image shows the hydraulic socket wrench loosening the now-cleaned bolt:

Socket on bolt that had the burs removed with grinder

Same view as the last, but from both ROVs (note the polished surface … as a the result of grinding, of the bolt below the socket in the image from ROV 1):

Damaged bolt removal seen from both ROVs (click image to enlarge)

ROV 1 now begins to remove all the loosened bolts:

ROV 1 using one of its mechanical arms and "hand" begins to remove the loosened bolts

The “hand” at the end of the arm is positioned directly above each bolt and then rotates counter-clockwise, unscrewing each bolt.

Bolt almost removed from flange

I was surprised that as each bolt was removed, the ROV would back away from the stack and move to a shelf located somewhere lower on the stack and drop each bolt on the shelf, rather than just drop the bolts to the ocean floor. Keep your work space tidy!!

Meanwhile, in the next image ROV 2 breaks out the trusty rotary wire brush and begins cleaning the surface of the outer flange:

Rotary wire brush cleaning the outer flange surface

It is pure speculation on my part, but I suspect that the Flange Overshot Removal Tool (FOLT), designed to remove the damaged flange, is designed with relatively close tolerances. BP cleaned the outside of the flange to make sure there are no large burrs or other obstacles on the flange that could inhibit the placement of the FOLT, shown below:

Flange Overshot Removal Tool ... used to remove the flange

Wire brushing continues to clean the entire outer surface of the flange:

View of wire-brushing operation from both ROVs (click image to enlarge)

I mentioned the “tool box: earlier. Below is a shot of one of those tool boxes:

Tool box

Note all the different colored rope loops with different tape markings; a very simple and clever way of identifying different tools IMHO. I’s say these guys may have done this type of thing once or twice before Below is a second view of the same tool box:

Another view of one of the tool boxes

At this point it’s almost midnight Saturday evening in the Gulf and the activity that I can see via the various ROV cameras is slowing down, so I decide to call it a day and go to bed. As it turned out, BP was apparently able to remove the flange around 12:30 or 12:45, so I missed that operation completely.

In the next post I’ll pick up the operation that began the next morning to install the Flange Transition Spool, seen in the image below:

Flange Transition Spool being tested

BP Gulf Oil Leak Well-Head Repair … an anthology

I’ve mentioned my engineering background in the past and how I marvel at some of the feats accomplished by American engineering prowess such as our accomplishments in outer space, submarine technology and medicine, just to mention a few. With that short intro, it is no surprise that the Gulf oil disaster has attracted my attention. I have logged on to BP’s web site every couple of days and watched their cameras on the undersea ROVs (remotely operated vehicles) showing barrel after barrel of crude oil flow from BP’s Macondo well. I’ve been collecting stories on the political consequences of this disaster for a forthcoming essay, but this series of posts will deal only with the core engineering challenges taking place in the Gulf as I write.

On Saturday afternoon I logged on to see BP’s progress on removing the LMRP cap (the temporary, loose fitting cap used to recover some of the oil flowing from the now broken Macondo well.

I was hooked!

Let me stop here to clarify that I have not expertise in the oil industry. My background in oil, aside from a couple of years pumping gas in a gas station after school, consists of exactly two days as a “boilermaker” for Texaco in San Pedro, CA in 1967 or 1968. I did work for for ten years for one the worlds largest oil-related engineering firms, but I was in their facilities organization and had little interface with the guys that designed and constructed huge refineries, petro-chemical plants and oil pipe-lines (the Alyeska Pipeline in Alaska) around the world.

As I watched, I started trying to figure out what the operators were doing as they manipulated the mechanical arms of the ROVs and slowly I began to understand the different steps as they began implementing the plan to replace the loose-fitting LMRP cap with a better-fitting device. I would recommend that you download a copy of a presentation (.pdf) BP has on their web site, showing their plan and the details of each element

At that point I began to take screen captures of the video from first one the two ROV cameras, thinking I could write a blog post. This is the first post of that anthology.

As it is late Sunday evening and BP has made a significant amount of progress over the last 18-20 or so hours toward their plan to capture most of the oil flowing from the run-away well, I’ll break this into several posts (who can say how many at this point?) for easier reading.

Almost 4:00 PM Pacific Time on July 10 I made my first screen-cap. From this point forward, I will reference all time as shown in the vid-caps , which is in Central Daylight Time.

BP removes LMRP cap

Following removal of the LMRP cap, the well flows uncontrolled. BP did install a tube to inject chemical dispersant directly into to flow, shown above (the white “U” shaped tube on the right of the flange and disappearing into the jagged pipe). At this point, I opened multiple browser windows to capture the various ROVs working either in conjunction with one another or on separate tasks and began to include the header indicating which ROV the image was being captured by.

At this point, removal of the top flange with the short section of pipe with the jagged edge (from being cut to allow the LMRP cap to be put in place) is the first task. In the next shot you can see the second ROV bring in the hydraulic socket wrench to begin removing the bolts holding the flange in place.

Ocean Intervention III ROV 1 arrives with tool to remove flange bolts (note tool in the left mechanical arm)

ROV 1 and 2 from Ocean Intervention III continue working together, loosening the six bolts around the flange.

View from both ROVs as BP begins to loosen the flange bolts (click for full image)

Note the hydraulic socket wrench being operated by ROV 1 on the right image, also seen from ROV 2′s camera on the left. This procedure continues as each bolt is loosened.

More flange bolts being loosened (click for larger image)

Note the loosened bolt to the left of the tool as viewed by ROV 2.

I’ll break here and continue in the morning.