Macondo Well Too Big To Plug?

[my-rifle]

I was having a brunch with the family yesterday when I became involved in a discussion with my brother about the BP efforts to stem the flow of oil from the Macondo well in the gulf. He's the one who owns an engineering firm that does a lot of oil-field controls work, and he suggested that the well may be sitting on top of an oil deposit that is bigger than anyone anticipated. He said the flow from the well is greater than any well he's ever heard of, and that BP stopped the "Top Kill" attempt to plug the well when they realized that plugging the well could cause uncontrolled leaks all over the seafloor caused by the incredible pressures under the well-head.

Does anyone have information about this idea? I'm curious, because if he's right then plugging the well might not be a viable approach after all.

 

[nickatnite]

They are still in process of plugging the well.

Relief well # 1 is now within 200' of the target zone.
Relief well # 2 is still being drilled as directed.

As far as what the reserves are in the Macondo well or rather the Macondo field, they are huge. I cannot comment further at this time; but, our rig (the Horizon) did nothing BUT exploration work and made at least 95% of ALL of the discoveries for Bp since 2002.

Something to MAYBE compare the Macondo well to, was the well we drilled last year called TIBER (KC 102 #1). That field alone is estimated to have 3-5 billion barrels of oil!!! Yes, I did say Billions (with a B)...

Before the TIBER well, we drilled a well called Kaskida (KC 292 # 1) and that field is estimated to have 3 Billion barrels of oil. Since then, the Kaskida field has had 2 appraisal wells drilled to confirm the deposits.

We have also made discoveries on wells called Freedom, Tubular Bells, Kodiak, Stones, Blues Image and many more...

We also drilled the Atlantis wells 3,4,6 and laid the foundation for the 16 well production batch set. The Atlantis field is estimated around 600 million bbls.

 

[my-rifle]

Nick from what I gather from your post they're not trying to plug the well so much as to relieve the pressure on the the well by drawing off the oil/gas before it gets to the well. Am I wrong about that?

 

[posse comatosis]

The intersection of well bores is being engineered far downhole so as to retain a huge bedrock cap over the formation. Hopefully, a plug there will preclude such sea floor leakage as your brother speaks of.

Assuming there is a way to plug the well off uphole at the relief intersection, traditional thinking is that mud should then be able to push the hydrocarbons back downhole where it can be plugged with cement.

But if the operator can't stem uphole flow, well, what then?

See today's BR Advocate for an excellent article on the relief well effort.

If BP is successful in stopping the flow of oil, it will be interesting to see how long it takes for somebody to attempt a re-entry of this formation if the prospects are huge.

 

[Longshot]

He said the flow from the well is greater than any well he's ever heard of, and that BP stopped the "Top Kill" attempt to plug the well when they realized that plugging the well could cause uncontrolled leaks all over the seafloor caused by the incredible pressures under the well-head.

The formation was strong enough to contain the pressure initially, otherwise the reservoir wouldn't exist in the first place. I'm a bit confused. How would plugging the well cause leaks on the seafloor, considering the reservoir pressure is slightly lower now that the well has been flowing for so long? I thought BP stopped the 'top kill' approach simply because it failed.

 

[my-rifle]

Yes, but now that the formation has been breached it's no longer as stable as it once was. After all it now has a hole in it. I believe the other posters are suggesting that if they completely fill the well hole all the way down to the relief well, the thick plug might hold back the pressure.

 

[Longshot]

But there is still an impermeable layer sitting atop a porous layer. What has changed to allow leaks along the sea floor? As the well is drilled, steel casing is lowered and cemented into place to strengthen the well. I can see the well being blown out at the casing shoe while pumping a kill fluid down hole at high pressures, but I still don't see how this process would cause uncontrollable leaks all along the sea floor.

I'm not calling your brother a liar. He clearly works in the industry and knows more than I do. I am working at a blowout prevention research facility at the moment, and I have never heard of this kind of failure yet, so I am trying to get more info is all.

 

[Yrdawg]

I posted this site a couple of days ago, is what they are saying possible, and how likely do ya'll think it is ?? I didn't get much input, don't know how many read .....

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/crude_lies_226.html

or this one,

http://www.helium.com/items/1864136-how-the-ultimate-bp-gulf-disaster-could-kill-millions

are these things real possibilities ??

 

[Elmuertomonkey]

I posted this site a couple of days ago, is what they are saying possible, and how likely do ya'll think it is ?? I didn't get much input, don't know how many read .....

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/crude_lies_226.html

or this one,

http://www.helium.com/items/1864136-how-the-ultimate-bp-gulf-disaster-could-kill-millions

are these things real possibilities ??

 

[LACamper]

I posted this site a couple of days ago, is what they are saying possible, and how likely do ya'll think it is ?? I didn't get much input, don't know how many read .....

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/crude_lies_226.html

or this one,

http://www.helium.com/items/1864136-how-the-ultimate-bp-gulf-disaster-could-kill-millions

are these things real possibilities ??

I too would like to hear more about this if there is even the slightest chance its true.

 

[Yrdawg]

Welcome to the house Mr Monkey.....it seems you're a celebrity.......



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good to meet U

 

[my-rifle]

I posted this site a couple of days ago, is what they are saying possible, and how likely do ya'll think it is ?? I didn't get much input, don't know how many read .....

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/crude_lies_226.html

or this one,

http://www.helium.com/items/1864136-how-the-ultimate-bp-gulf-disaster-could-kill-millions

are these things real possibilities ??

No. They are not. I read the links, and the authors don't quote any sources, but (one thing is clear )their hyperbole is staggering.

 

[Yrdawg]

OK....good, just so it's impossible, I won't worry, thanks