Yesterday, I watched Kent Wells' presentation to the press explaining the latest operation that the Coast Guard finally pushed them into starting today. Wells did a good job, as always, explaining the specific operation, but avoided key questions about what all of us want to know: the flow rate, and what happened to the BOP (blowout preventer). As we talked about earlier today, the Coast Guard insisted that BP use the present weather window to get what is now called the "capping stack", which is three ram blowout preventer cavities with hydraulically controlled flow valves between them. I don't know yet what rams are in the cavities (those are the big white things sticking out the sides), but obviously they have at least one set of blind rams. Here's a good illustration of the entire assembly:
As you can see, the bottom spool of the assembly bolts up to the flex joint flange at the top of the BOP (blowout preventer). In normal use, the flex joint actually allows the riser going up to the rig to move with ocean currents and is usually made with an elastomer. Wells said that they used hydraulic jacks to straighten the flex joint so it would provide a level surface to mount the new stack. I still don't understand why they don't remove the flex joint, or the entire LMRP, for that matter, rather than landing this 150 stack on top of the flex joint. Remember, the EDS (emergency disconnect system) is on the bottom of the LMRP (lower marine riser package). I'm assuming that have found some kind of damage in that portion of the BOP, but I wish someone would ask that question. I'm not holding my breath. Anyway, on the very bottom of the transition spool (3 in the picture), below the flange, is a piece of pipe cut at an angle. This is called a muleshoe. Muleshoes are commonly used in downhole work, making it easier to get over other pipe that may be in the hole that is damaged. Remember, there are 2 pieces of drillpipe stuck in the BOP that we talked about yesterday, and they're actually going to tie those together to allow the muleshoe to get over both of them making it easier for the two flanges to meet up and seat.
The stack lands on the latching collar the will then be looking up from the spool. Once the flex hoses are connected to the production valves on the side of the stack, they're going to do shut-integrity tests. I assume this means they will close one of the rams partially and take pressure readings to see if pressure in the well is down enough to just shut it in. They declined to give any more detail on that question, too, so we'll just have to watch what happens. Here's Well's video from yesterday:
This is good progress, but my question is, that why did this stack take 2 1/2 months to build? In one of the presentations, they said that this was one of the first ideas they had. If that's true, why didn't they just build the damn thing? It looks like all standard Cameron components, and it doesn't take 10 weeks to weld up high pressure spools. This all seems like too little, too late, but I guess we all know why that is.
More on The Daily Hurricane Energy page.
As you can see, the bottom spool of the assembly bolts up to the flex joint flange at the top of the BOP (blowout preventer). In normal use, the flex joint actually allows the riser going up to the rig to move with ocean currents and is usually made with an elastomer. Wells said that they used hydraulic jacks to straighten the flex joint so it would provide a level surface to mount the new stack. I still don't understand why they don't remove the flex joint, or the entire LMRP, for that matter, rather than landing this 150 stack on top of the flex joint. Remember, the EDS (emergency disconnect system) is on the bottom of the LMRP (lower marine riser package). I'm assuming that have found some kind of damage in that portion of the BOP, but I wish someone would ask that question. I'm not holding my breath. Anyway, on the very bottom of the transition spool (3 in the picture), below the flange, is a piece of pipe cut at an angle. This is called a muleshoe. Muleshoes are commonly used in downhole work, making it easier to get over other pipe that may be in the hole that is damaged. Remember, there are 2 pieces of drillpipe stuck in the BOP that we talked about yesterday, and they're actually going to tie those together to allow the muleshoe to get over both of them making it easier for the two flanges to meet up and seat. The stack lands on the latching collar the will then be looking up from the spool. Once the flex hoses are connected to the production valves on the side of the stack, they're going to do shut-integrity tests. I assume this means they will close one of the rams partially and take pressure readings to see if pressure in the well is down enough to just shut it in. They declined to give any more detail on that question, too, so we'll just have to watch what happens. Here's Well's video from yesterday:
This is good progress, but my question is, that why did this stack take 2 1/2 months to build? In one of the presentations, they said that this was one of the first ideas they had. If that's true, why didn't they just build the damn thing? It looks like all standard Cameron components, and it doesn't take 10 weeks to weld up high pressure spools. This all seems like too little, too late, but I guess we all know why that is.
More on The Daily Hurricane Energy page.
Everything has been available from the beginning. This is what bothers me a lot. I sent this solution below to BP, Coast Guard, White House and many other Government branches, news etc. The funny thing is just about everything is exactly as I suggested on July 4,2010.
I intentionally wrote this suggestion in a very flippant tone because I knew that this would work and I knew they knew how to do this already.
FIX THE LEAK 100% OFF THE SHELF PARTS
STEP BY STEP
1) Remove flange with this riser tool http://www.francistorque.com/rt_series.html This is a better tool than the one they used on 6/10/10 as it has the most torque and a feature that sets the wrench in speed mode when there is less torque required. They used one very similar
2) Make up: 21inch flange then gate valve or BOP type Ram They went with the BOP type ram, 3 of them with choke and kill then another 21 inch flange with a male deepwater collet connector from Cameron like this or similar http://www.c-a-m.com/content/products/product_detail.cfm?pid=2809&bunit=dps This is the exact connector that they used on top of the transition spool assembly on Step 3
They built this just about exactly but die it in 2 sections, the first section they called the transition spool and the valve section they called the capping stack.
3) Mount new valve system to flange on top of BOP
There are a number of ways to do this and I am sure that the best minds are aware of many techniques, methods and tools to do this with fluid at full pressure.
I believe that Cameron, Oceaneering, Oil States all have guides and other tools to help make this connection.
Another option that Red Adair has used was to put one bolt in the flange and then rotate the flange into place. Might not be the best method here but could have some merit.
Another method may be with a guide welded to the bottom of the new valve system and stab onto it then bolt in place This is the exact method that they used, it is the diagonal cut pipe on the bottom of the transition spool it is called a Mule Shoe. Even possible to insert a guide pin in the extra holes available now for the unused Choke and Kill lines. This is also the exact method that they used. Notice in the picture on the right on step 3 the tool steel pins, those are actually placed in the vacant Choke and Kill holes.
>>
4) Now you can take the female Diverless collet This is the “HC connector used on step4 on both the bottom of the “Capping Stack and the bottom of the rise that they have demonstrated going topside or to the perforated pipe in step 4 connector attached to the 21 inch riser to the drill ship and connect this to the top of the New valve system.
Now when done
1,The connection should be 100% leak free.
2,You can throttle the flow with the valve if need be or desired, maybe in another top kill event if that is even in the cards(doubt it).
3, With the Collet Connector you can easily disconnect in the event of a Hurricane.
4, This can be built rapidly with off the shelf part from your local off shore oil improvement stores.
5, If you have a problem with installation I am sure that their customer service dept will be glad to help.
Where did BP source this assembly? I can't find out where it came from. And how long has this particular type of thing been available?
nice presentation, eljefe - as usual !
here's some additional fodder against the ' blow it up ' crowd:
http://www.floridaoilspilllaw.com/reuters-undersea-mudslide-danger-if-bp-implodes-oil-gusher-tsunami-risk-highest-near-river-deltas-with-loose-sediment-sound-familiar
it's always bothered me we don't know what the head pressure decline has been from day 1 to day 83 - each day the well has run, head pressure should decline at least a little, making placement of top hat/the cap/capping stack easier than the day before because back-pressure on the hole would be less with less danger to the hole.
wonder if this could explain why it took so long to weld together and test the Cameron equipment - combined with my cynical view that somehow these relief wells will be converted into production wells instead of killing the blow-out, which could potentially damage the prospect of ever producing hydrocarbons from BP's investment ?
also find it curious we've never heard the status of the BP well TransOcean's Marianas rig was drilling in Nov. 2009 when the Marianas was damaged by hurricane Ida and towed off location:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transocean_Marianas
wonder what shape that well it was drilling was in up until TransOcean's Deepwater Horizon started operations in February 2010 ?
in short, was the Deepwater Horizon really drilling a relief well for the damaged Marianas rig well, or was Deepwater Horizon a true re-entry into the Marianas hole ?
lastly, where was the Marianas rig sited and where was its bottom-hole vs. where was Deepwater Horizon sited and where was its bottom hole :)
inquiring minds would like to know what the files at MMS and BP indicate along with some GPS data.
p.s. - it's been reported Deepwater Horizon's day rate to BP was about $500,000 and since TransOcean's Marianas day rate was $564,000 per the Chronicle:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/energy/5877187.html
BP was saving about $60K+/day, $420K+/week, over $1 million per month by using Deepwater Horizon; sure do hope someone got a Q1 bonus for that !
BP explanations about what is going on have gotten a lot better over the last 3 mos. Scale indicators are finally explicit, not having a clear idea of how big things are has been one of my aggravations from day one.
The BP audio commentary about the land practice rig doesn't mention it, but there are 2 pipes with crushed ends in the larger diameter pipe below the mule shoe. I'm assuming these simulate the drill pipes stuck in the BOP, as discussed in the 7/10 eljefebob.
The engineering needed to pull all this off is quite impressive, every bit as impressive as watching NASA in space, except the massive pieces aren't weightless and the pressures are immense. Watching the ROVs at work is fascinating - I imagine there is a lot of opportunity for Curly, Larry, Moe type accidents when they are maneuvering close together.