MNeagle
15th May 2010, 01:08 PM
May 15 (Bloomberg) -- BP Plc, the largest oil and natural- gas producer in the Gulf of Mexico, had a problem inserting a tube into a leaking well and is trying again today, its latest effort to reduce spillage from a well off Louisiana.
Remote-operated vehicles are trying to guide a 6 5/8-inch (17-centimeter) tube wrapped with a large rubber flange into the severed 21-inch-wide well pipe that’s gushing oil from the seafloor. The idea is that undersea pressure will force the oil into the pipe and up to the surface, where a drill ship will separate and store the oil for processing at a refinery.
Overnight, BP had a “problem†inserting the tube, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said during a visit to the Fort Jackson Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Buras, Louisiana, where he watched officials clean a female pelican that was covered in oil.
Yesterday, Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer for exploration and production, declined to give odds of success for the tube strategy. An earlier attempt to divert the flow using a 40-foot steel box didn’t work.
The spill began after Transocean Ltd.’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, leased to London-based BP, exploded April 20 and sank two days later, taking the lives of 11 crew members. Federal and state fisheries closures have idled boats and the spill has cast up tar balls on beaches in Louisiana and Alabama. BP had paid out $8 million of damage claims as of yesterday, Suttles said.
Relief Wells
Inserting the tube would only capture some of the spillage. “We’re not going to be able to stop it today or the next few days,†Suttles said of the leak on CBS’s “Early Show†yesterday. “The earliest chance for that will probably be late next week.â€
BP is working on several options for plugging the well, located 5,000 feet below the surface, in the coming week. The goal is to end the spillage until it can drill one or two relief wells about 13,000 feet below the seafloor into the damaged well and plug it with cement.
“The riser insertion tube is ongoing,†Mark Proegler, a BP spokesman, said today in a telephone interview. The tube is still the company’s preferred option, he said.
BP is preparing a “junk shot†for the end of next week that would inject tire pieces and golf balls, followed by mud and cement, to plug the leaking well.
Work on a relief well began May 2 and will take 90 days to complete. Drilling of the second well, a backup, has federal approval, Suttles said.
More Dispersant
BP won clearance yesterday from the Environmental Protection Agency to spray dispersant near the sea floor to break the oil into small droplets before it reaches the surface. The technique had never been used before, and BP conducted three tests at the spill site to win EPA approval, using undersea robots to spray the chemical as if they were watering a lawn, as Suttles described it.
Subsea dispersant will be “far more efficient†than “dumping it from an airplane into a flat slick,†David Nicholas, a BP spokesman, said in a telephone interview. “We’ll do it as we can fit it into the program of activities we can fit into the seabed.â€
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJ9Oc4w6imTM&pos=9
Remote-operated vehicles are trying to guide a 6 5/8-inch (17-centimeter) tube wrapped with a large rubber flange into the severed 21-inch-wide well pipe that’s gushing oil from the seafloor. The idea is that undersea pressure will force the oil into the pipe and up to the surface, where a drill ship will separate and store the oil for processing at a refinery.
Overnight, BP had a “problem†inserting the tube, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said during a visit to the Fort Jackson Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Buras, Louisiana, where he watched officials clean a female pelican that was covered in oil.
Yesterday, Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer for exploration and production, declined to give odds of success for the tube strategy. An earlier attempt to divert the flow using a 40-foot steel box didn’t work.
The spill began after Transocean Ltd.’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, leased to London-based BP, exploded April 20 and sank two days later, taking the lives of 11 crew members. Federal and state fisheries closures have idled boats and the spill has cast up tar balls on beaches in Louisiana and Alabama. BP had paid out $8 million of damage claims as of yesterday, Suttles said.
Relief Wells
Inserting the tube would only capture some of the spillage. “We’re not going to be able to stop it today or the next few days,†Suttles said of the leak on CBS’s “Early Show†yesterday. “The earliest chance for that will probably be late next week.â€
BP is working on several options for plugging the well, located 5,000 feet below the surface, in the coming week. The goal is to end the spillage until it can drill one or two relief wells about 13,000 feet below the seafloor into the damaged well and plug it with cement.
“The riser insertion tube is ongoing,†Mark Proegler, a BP spokesman, said today in a telephone interview. The tube is still the company’s preferred option, he said.
BP is preparing a “junk shot†for the end of next week that would inject tire pieces and golf balls, followed by mud and cement, to plug the leaking well.
Work on a relief well began May 2 and will take 90 days to complete. Drilling of the second well, a backup, has federal approval, Suttles said.
More Dispersant
BP won clearance yesterday from the Environmental Protection Agency to spray dispersant near the sea floor to break the oil into small droplets before it reaches the surface. The technique had never been used before, and BP conducted three tests at the spill site to win EPA approval, using undersea robots to spray the chemical as if they were watering a lawn, as Suttles described it.
Subsea dispersant will be “far more efficient†than “dumping it from an airplane into a flat slick,†David Nicholas, a BP spokesman, said in a telephone interview. “We’ll do it as we can fit it into the program of activities we can fit into the seabed.â€
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJ9Oc4w6imTM&pos=9