BP says it has temporarily stopped the oil flow

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10654584

It'll probably blow again. Or worse yet that big huge underwater fart, (methane bubble), is slowly building).

Lets hope that it stays sealed. I think that the people in the south east of the USA can do without more oil in the sea or on the beach.

I would be interested to know how this sorry tale would have been viewed if it had been the result of an act of vandalism. In the following paper some one does consider this question (I think that the sea devils are unlikely to want an oil leak, if anything they would be more likely to activate blowout preventors on normal healthy wells out of spite IMO... Also sea devils do not exist).

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/s ... ode=412343

_________________
Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Bra-VO, British Petroleum. It only took you 86 days to temporarily cap that well in the Gulf of Mexico. /golfclap

4 possibilities arise;

1. they are telling the complete truth.

2. the oil stopped on its own (ie it had to stop eventually)

3. they stopped the leak, but by making another leak further down the line (await 'surprise' newsflash)

4. they stopped the leak by puncturing lots and lots of little leaks further down the line. they are hoping that this will go unnoticed.

Things are looking up, for now.

My guess is that the current "fix" is a fragile "fix". The blowout was caused by a massive backup and blowout of methane gas. If this current cap has put a lid on the current flow but not dealt with the underlying cause there may yet be another big methane blowout which will wreck the current cap and lead to an even large oil flow. What they need to do is force massive amounts of concrete and mud down that hole big enough to proven another methane "blow"

ruveyn

I have seen videos of oil gushing up through the sea floor several miles from the well, so capping the well will probably only make that worse.

Those relief wells had better work or the world is in big trouble.

I felt pretty good about it, until I read some of the alternative possibilities.

Physics, capped the pressure would be 9,500 10,000 psi, the weight of water and earth above.

Before the cap it was said a reading of 6,000 7,000 would show a leak farther down.

With pressure at 6,500 and rising slowly, a lot of oil is going somewhere else, seeking the path of least resistance.

The bottom is still 10,000 psi, the pressure drop coming somewhere up the casing, but where?

A lot of unconfined oil is moving into another strata, blowing an oil bubble, which can all erupt at once.

Being released at the sea floor level, at some 2,800 psi, 2.5 million gallons a day. capped at 6,700, still 2.5 million gallons a day, flowing to somewhere else.

The plug has to go below the leak to seal it.

If it was close to the surface it should have shown by now, if it is filling some deep strata, it is floating the sea bed, and could endlessly.

Mud works from being twice as dense as water, in a sealed system the pressure is enough to hold back the pressure below, but in an open side strata, 2.5 millions of gallons of mud could flow forever, and only lift the sea bed a little. It would not increase back pressure in the well, which is needed to stop the flow, so a cement plug can be placed, pouring cement in a river does not work, it flows away.

Due to our planets bad weather, the Gulf Geology is mostly mud, and from very large floods, the end of ice ages, sand. Some layers hardened ,more, some are open, if the oil is flowing into a layer of sand, it can flow forever. So will any mud or cement.

It is still 10,000 psi below the leak, the leak may not be in the casing at all. It can be around the casing, which opened a path through the confining strata, and is now giving the oil a new path.

Right now the well is capped, lots of pipe hookups, and if it was 10,000 psi, pumping in mud would push the oil down, till the well was filled, flow stopped, and then cement could plug it.

Filling the whole casing with cement might do nothing, if the leak is running up the outside of the casing.

No relief well is going to stop oil migrating to another strata. The oil is there because the top strata confined it, that is now broken, and the strata above did not confine oil, as it found a way to the surface.

2.5 millon gallons a day is still flowing, maybe a lot more, now through the earth, which failed to hold oil before, somewhere, a hundred miles away, a river of oil will break free, and flow till there is no more oil.

BP said they thought there were 50,000,000 barrels. Total leakage to date, 2 to 4 Million.

It is not over till the fat lady sings.

one of the biggest scandals that seems to have been undereported IMO is the use of massive amounts of chemical 'dispersants' which are said to be 4 times more toxic than the oil itself.

Despite there being many less toxic alternatives, and the EPA ordering BP to switch over to less dangerous formulas, BP just ignored them and continued releasing (and ordering more of) corexit 9500 there are now somewhere in the region of 2m barrels and we have absolutley no idea what the toxic effects are going to be, how far they will spread or last.

oh, i'm impressed BP

if this was WoW, you would be totally /gkicked

/golfclap

BP forbids its clean-up workers to wear protective clothing, they dont want the tv cameras to get any glimpse of danger.

says in this vid that the surfacants do nothing helpful, and actually make it harder to reclaim the oil. The whole purpose of the exercise is to make it less visible, less media-pathic.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLtsniN1RTw&[/youtube]

Temporarily...

I don't like the sound of that.