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Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Kill It

BP is getting ready to "Top Kill" the leak.

Is it Top Kill Wednesday?

AJC: BP about to take its best shot at shutting massive oil leak

BP: Top kill procedure
We have the Q4000 vessel at the surface which has a crane for lifting heavy equipment and is a central part of the surface equipment for this procedure. We also have a number of other vessels: the HOS Centerline, with Halliburton pumping equipment; the HOS Strongline; and the BJ Services Blue Dolphin and Halliburton Stim Star IV pumping boats.


A total of 50,000 barrels of mud will be on location to kill the well – far more than necessary, but we want to be prepared for anything. Pumping capacity on location is more than 30,000 hydraulic horsepower.


The mud will be pumped down the 6-5/8 inch drill pipe (pipe is connected to the Q4000), then through 3-inch hoses, which go through the manifold on the seafloor. Then the mud moves through another set of 3-inch hoses attached to the Deepwater Horizon BOP choke and kill lines.


With the manifold, we can also pump the ‘junk shot’ if necessary to stop too much of the kill mud going out through the top of the BOP rather than going down into the well to stop the flow. By switching valves in the subsea manifold, we can inject the ‘bridging material’ (the junk), which will prevent such losses and enable the top kill to continue.


We’ve been testing the junk shot on-shore, looking at different configurations of what might restrict the flow out of the Deepwater Horizon riser and what types of materials would help shut it off. Materials in a junk shot can include well-known items such as pieces of tires, golf balls, and pieces of rope.


Most of the equipment is on site and preparations continue for this operation.

4 comments:

Glynn Kalara said...

Let's all pray this works and doesn't blow up and make things even worse. Remember nobody has ever done this on a BOP at 5 thousand feet under the sea and pressures of over 2500 lbs. per sq. inch! Personally, I think it's all they got until the secondary wells in months from now try to shut it off below the surface.

Jim Sande said...

I'm watching the live feed and am clueless. I think everyone wants this thing to work. If it doesn't, then what?

Glynn Kalara said...

The last major sea well blow out was off the Yucatan in Mex. back in the 90's it took 9 mos. to shutdown it down.

Jim Sande said...

Oh dear, that is bad news.