Cool shot. It looks like they are at 15,100+ feet down and it says they are monitor valves on the BOP. Doesn't look like much is going on right now.
That would be some trick, considering well TD was only 13000 ft.
Sea water depth is only +- 5000 ft. I haven't looked at the live feed---dialup here. There won't be MUCH to see--unless something goes wrong. Most of the action will be inside the BOBs, liner, casing and anulus. You may see some mud come out the bent riser tho, they have to get the well moving back down, and will pump a lot of kill weight mud to do it. Some will likely go seaward, but not much that can be done about it.
Thanks for the interesting link. Can anybody estimate the size of the span of the picture? Difficult to imagine...it looks like a roadside drainhole squirting stuff up into the water above , but I knwo it must be a fair bit bigger than that Nick
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Old Lar Member
Posts: 13798 From: Palm Bay, Florida Registered: Nov 1999
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It looks like the flow in the video is somewhat reduced from what it was when this thread started, but it's hard to tell. Some reports are saying that what we're seeing is excess drilling mud being blown back out. (Don't know whether that's good or bad. Just what I've heard.)
I wish them well. (Certainly not meant to be punny.)
[This message has been edited by Raydar (edited 05-28-2010).]
The inside diameter of the wellhead is generally 18 3/4". The inside diameter of the riser which you see in the picture is going to be close to that, I can't remember what they were exactly but it is close to the size of a manhole cover.
I'm wondering why the news this morning said the plan had worked, and everything was fine.
I don't know if it was FOX, or CNN, we went to both this morning.
Brad
The media picked up only on BP's announcement yesterday that they were able to successfully pump against the well, and were able to hold pressure against the flow as well--meaning only, that they were able to apply pressure without damaging the BOP assy. They can copntrol the well flow by holding pump pressure against the flow of oil.gas, but had not acheived a static balance, meaning they have not been able to build up enough mud volum in the casing for the weighted mud alone to hold down the beast--they can only do so with the pumps running. The well is static only if the hydrostatic head is suffecient to hold down the flow with the pumps off, and AFAIK that hasn't happened yet. The turned the pumps off yesterday, watched the well while they replenished their mud tanks, and the downhole pressure started pushing the kill mud back out.
If and when they reach a balanced condition without pumps, they will transition to pumping cement slurry, and that transition itself is going to be a sticky wicket, frought with a potential for danger.
Or, if ya just want to see the animation, here it is. It shows the 2 relief wells that are being drilled and their proposed drill path.
As you can see, it's a crowded place down there. The mud travels down the casing, out into the annulus and hopefully into the formation, where the leakis emanating from, which I believe is at the casing seal at the 9 5/8 X 7" juncture.
Here's a pretty accurate depiction of the activity above and below surface. You may have to enlarge it to read the notations, but that is a LOT of ROVs all in one place.
[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 05-28-2010).]
, but I knwo it must be a fair bit bigger than that 
