{"id":3867,"date":"2010-06-15T07:38:30","date_gmt":"2010-06-15T12:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=3867"},"modified":"2010-06-15T07:38:30","modified_gmt":"2010-06-15T12:38:30","slug":"gulf-oil-disaster-well-bore-structure-compromised-down-hole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/gulf-oil-disaster-well-bore-structure-compromised-down-hole\/","title":{"rendered":"Gulf Oil Disaster: Well Bore Structure Compromised &quot;Down Hole&quot;."},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<div id=\"attachment_3871\" style=\"width: 452px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3871\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3871 lazyload\" title=\"waveoil\" data-src=\"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/waveoil-350x254.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"442\" height=\"321\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 442px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 442\/321;\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3871\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oil Surfing in on Wave, June 12 (Photo by AP)<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Friends alerted me to the following analysis of the oil leak, which seems somewhat more professionally &amp; technically savvy (&amp; way scarier) than anything else I&#8217;ve read. The conclusion the author comes to after analyzing why the Top Kill failed: &#8220;It means they will never cap the gusher after the wellhead. They   cannot&#8230;the more they try and restrict the oil gushing out the   bop?&#8230;the more it will transfer to the leaks below. Just like a leaky   garden hose with a nozzle on it.&#8221; I.e. the well is compromised &#8220;down hole,&#8221; pressure on top will blow it out below &amp; the oil will leak laterally. &#8220;I am convinced the erosion and compromising of the  entire system is  accelerating and attacking more key structural areas of  the well, the  blow out preventer and surrounding strata holding it all  up and  together&#8230;. All of these things lead to only one place, a fully wide open well  bore  directly to the oil deposit&#8230;after that, it goes into the realm of &#8216;the worst things you can think of&#8217;.&#8217; The well may come completely apart   as the inner liners fail. &#8230; the very least damaging   outcome as bad as it is, is that we are stuck with a wide open gusher   blowing out 150,000 barrels a day of raw oil or more. There isn&#8217;t any   &#8220;cap dome&#8221; or any other suck fixer device on earth that exists or could   be built that will stop it from gushing out and doing more and more   damage to the gulf.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">So I am reprinting lengthy excerpts, in fact most of it, below; the\u00a0 full original version was published by <strong>The Oil Drum<\/strong> &amp; can be found <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theoildrum.com\/node\/6593#comment-648967\">here<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>As you have probably seen and maybe feel yourselves, there are  several things that do not appear to make sense regarding the actions of  attack against the well. Don&#8217;t feel bad, there is much that doesn&#8217;t  make sense even to professionals unless you take into account some  important variables that we are not being told about. There seems to me  to be a reluctance to face what cannot be termed anything less than grim  circumstances in my opinion. There certainly is a reluctance to inform  us regular people and all we have really gotten is a few dots here and  there&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>First of all&#8230;set aside all your thoughts of plugging the well and  stopping it from blowing out oil using any method from the top down.  Plugs, big valves to just shut it off, pinching the pipe closed,  installing a new bop or lmrp, shooting any epoxy in it, top kills with  mud etc etc etc&#8230;.forget that, it won&#8217;t be happening..it&#8217;s done and  over. In fact actually opening up the well at the subsea source and  allowing it to gush more is not only exactly what has happened, it was  probably necessary, or so they think anyway.<\/p>\n<p>So you have to ask WHY? Why make it worse?&#8230;there really can only be  one answer and that answer does not bode well for all of us. It&#8217;s  really an inescapable conclusion at this point, unless you want to  believe that every Oil and Gas professional involved suddenly just  forgot everything they know or woke up one morning and drank a few big  cups of stupid and got assigned to directing the response to this  catastrophe. Nothing makes sense unless you take this into account, but  after you do&#8230;you will see the &#8220;sense&#8221; behind what has happened and  what is happening. That conclusion is this:<\/p>\n<p><strong>The well bore structure is compromised &#8220;Down hole&#8221;.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That is something which is a &#8220;Worst nightmare&#8221; conclusion to reach.  While many have been saying this for some time as with any complex  disaster of this proportion many have &#8220;said&#8221; a lot of things with no  real sound reasons or evidence for jumping to such conclusions, well  this time it appears that they may have jumped into the right place&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>TOP KILL &#8211; FAILS:<br \/>\nThis was probably our best and only chance to kill this well from the  top down. This &#8220;kill mud&#8221; is a tried and true method of killing wells  and usually has a very good chance of success. The depth of this well  presented some logistical challenges, but it really should not of  presented any functional obstructions. The pumping capacity was there  and it would have worked, should have worked, but it didn&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>It didn&#8217;t work, but it did create evidence of what is really  happening. First of all the method used in this particular top kill made  no sense, did not follow the standard operating procedure used to kill  many other wells and in fact for the most part was completely contrary  to the procedure which would have given it any real chance of working.<\/p>\n<p>When a well is &#8220;Killed&#8221; using this method heavy drill fluid &#8220;Mud&#8221; is  pumped at high volume and pressure into a leaking well. The leaks are  &#8220;behind&#8221; the point of access where the mud is fired in, in this case the  &#8220;choke and Kill lines&#8221; which are at the very bottom of the BOP (Blow  Out Preventer) The heavy fluid gathers in the &#8220;behind&#8221; portion of the  leaking well assembly, while some will leak out, it very quickly  overtakes the flow of oil and only the heavier mud will leak out. Once  that &#8220;solid&#8221; flow of mud is established at the leak &#8220;behind&#8221; the well,  the mud pumps increase pressure and begin to overtake the pressure of  the oil deposit. The mud is established in a solid column that is driven  downward by the now stronger pumps. The heavy mud will create a solid  column that is so heavy that the oil deposit can no longer push it up,  shut off the pumps&#8230;the well is killed&#8230;it can no longer flow.<\/p>\n<p>Usually this will happen fairly quickly, in fact for it to work at  all&#8230;it must happen quickly. There is no &#8220;trickle some mud in&#8221; because  that is not how a top kill works. The flowing oil will just flush out  the trickle and a solid column will never be established. Yet what we  were told was &#8220;It will take days to know whether it<br \/>\nworked&#8221;&#8230;.&#8221;Top kill might take 48 hours to complete&#8221;&#8230;the only way it  could take days is if BP intended to do some &#8220;test fires&#8221; to test  integrity of the entire system. The actual &#8220;kill&#8221; can only take hours by  nature because it must happen fairly rapidly. It also increases strain  on the &#8220;behind&#8221; portion and in this instance we all know that what  remained was fragile at best.<\/p>\n<p>Early that afternoon we saw a massive flow burst out of the riser  &#8220;plume&#8221; area. This was the first test fire of high pressure mud  injection. Later on same day we saw a greatly increased flow out of the  kink leaks, this was mostly mud at that time as the kill mud is tanish  color due to the high amount of Barite which is added to it to weight it  and Barite is a white powder.<\/p>\n<p>We later learned the pumping was shut down at midnight, we weren&#8217;t  told about that until almost 16 hours later, but by then&#8230;I&#8217;m sure BP  had learned the worst. The mud they were pumping in was not only leaking  out the &#8220;behind&#8221; leaks&#8230;it was leaking out of someplace forward&#8230;and  since they were not even near being able to pump mud into the deposit  itself, because the well would be dead long before&#8230;and the oil was  still coming up, there could only be one conclusion&#8230;the wells casings  were ruptured and it was leaking &#8220;down hole&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>They tried the &#8220;Junk shot&#8221;&#8230;the &#8220;bridging materials&#8221; which also  failed and likely made things worse in regards to the ruptured well  casings.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Despite successfully pumping a total of over 30,000 barrels of heavy  mud, in three attempts at rates of up to<br \/>\n80 barrels a minute, and deploying a wide range of different bridging  materials, the operation did not overcome the flow from the well.&#8221;<br \/>\n<a title=\"http:\/\/www.bp.com\/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&amp;contentId=7062487\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bp.com\/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&amp;contentId=7062487\">http:\/\/www.bp.com\/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&amp;contentId=7062487<\/a><\/p>\n<p>80 Barrels per minute is over 200,000 gallons per hour, over 115,000  barrels per day&#8230;did we seen an increase over and above what was  already leaking out of 115k bpd?&#8230;.we did not&#8230;it would have been a  massive increase in order of multiples and this did not happen.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The whole purpose is to get the kill mud down,\u201d said Wells. \u201cWe&#8217;ll  have 50,000 barrels of mud on hand to kill this well. It&#8217;s far more than  necessary, but we always like to have backup.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Try finding THAT quote around&#8230;it&#8217;s been scrubbed&#8230;here&#8217;s a <a href=\"http:\/\/webcache.googleusercontent.com\/search?q=cache:WDj-HORTmIoJ:www.chron.com\/disp\/story.mpl\/business\/deepwaterhorizon\/7006870.html+%E2%809CThe+whole+purpose+is+to+get+the+kill+mud+down,%E2%80%9D+said+Wells.+%E2%80%9CWe%27ll+have+50,000+barrels+of+mud+on+hand+to+kill+this+well.+It%27s+far+more+than+necessary,+but+we+always+like+to+have+backup.%E2%80%9D&amp;cd=1&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;gl=us\">cached  copy of a quote<\/a>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The &#8220;top kill&#8221; effort, launched Wednesday afternoon by industry and  government engineers, had pumped enough drilling fluid to block oil and  gas spewing from the well, Allen said. The pressure from the well was  very low, he said, but persisting.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Allen said one ship that was pumping fluid into the well had run out  of the fluid, or &#8220;mud,&#8221; and that a second ship was on the way. He said  he was encouraged by the progress.&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.houmatoday.com\/article\/20100527\/ARTICLES\/100529348\">Here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Later we found out that Allen had no idea what was really going on  and had been &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.realclearpolitics.com\/articles\/2010\/05\/27\/interview_with_coas...\">Unavailable all day<\/a>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So what we had was BP running out of 50,000 barrels of mud in a very  short period of time. An amount far and above what they deemed necessary  to kill the well. Shutting down pumping 16 hours before telling anyone,  including the president. We were never really given a clear reason why  &#8220;Top Kill&#8221; failed, just that it couldn&#8217;t overcome the well.<\/p>\n<p>There is only one article anywhere that says anything else about it  at this time of writing&#8230;and it&#8217;s a relatively obscure article from the  wall street journal &#8220;online&#8221; citing an unnamed source.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;WASHINGTON\u2014BP PLC has concluded that its &#8220;top-kill&#8221; attempt last  week to seal its broken well in the Gulf of Mexico may have failed due to a malfunctioning disk inside the well  about 1,000 feet below the ocean floor.<\/p>\n<p>The disk, part of the subsea safety infrastructure, may have ruptured  during the surge of oil and gas up the well on April 20 that led to the  explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig, BP officials said. The rig  sank two days later, triggering a leak that has since become the worst  in U.S. history.<\/p>\n<p>The broken disk may have prevented the heavy drilling mud injected  into the well last week from getting far enough down the well to  overcome the pressure from the escaping oil and gas, people familiar  with BP&#8217;s findings said. They said much of the drilling mud may also  have escaped from the well into the rock formation outside the wellbore.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, BP wasn&#8217;t able to get sufficient pressure to keep the  oil and gas at bay. If they had been able to build up sufficient  pressure, the company had hoped to pump in cement and seal off the well.  The effort was deemed a failure on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>BP started the top-kill effort Wednesday afternoon, shooting heavy  drilling fluids into the broken valve known as a blowout preventer. The  mud was driven by a 30,000 horsepower pump installed on a ship at the  surface. But it was clear from the start that a lot of the &#8220;kill mud&#8221;  was leaking out instead of going down into the well.&#8221; (<a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB1000142405274870487560457528013357716426...\">here<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>There are some inconsistencies with this article.<br \/>\nThere are no &#8220;Disks&#8221; or &#8220;Subsea safety structure&#8221; 1,000 feet below the  sea floor, all that is there is well bore. There is nothing that can  allow the mud or oil to &#8220;escape&#8221; into the rock formation outside the  well bore except the well, because it is the only thing there.<\/p>\n<p>All the actions and few tid bits of information all lead to one  inescapable conclusion. The well pipes below the sea floor are broken  and leaking. Now you have some real data of how BP&#8217;s actions are  evidence of that, as well as some murky statement from &#8220;BP officials&#8221;  confirming the same.<\/p>\n<p>I took some time to go into a bit of detail concerning the failure of  Top Kill because this was a significant event. To those of us outside  the real inside loop, yet still fairly knowledgeable, it was a major  confirmation of what many feared. That the system below the sea floor  has serious failures of varying magnitude in the complicated chain, and  it is breaking down and it will continue to.<\/p>\n<p>What does this mean?<\/p>\n<p>It means they will never cap the gusher after the wellhead. They  cannot&#8230;the more they try and restrict the oil gushing out the  bop?&#8230;the more it will transfer to the leaks below. Just like a leaky  garden hose with a nozzle on it. When you open up the nozzle?&#8230;it  doesn&#8217;t leak so bad, you close the nozzle?&#8230;it leaks real bad,<br \/>\nsame dynamics. It is why they sawed the riser off&#8230;or tried to  anyway&#8230;but they clipped it off, to relieve pressure on the leaks &#8220;down  hole&#8221;. I&#8217;m sure there was a bit of panic time after they crimp\/pinched  off the large riser pipe and the Diamond wire saw got stuck and  failed&#8230;because that crimp diverted pressure and flow to the rupture  down below.<\/p>\n<p>Contrary to what most of us would think as logical to stop the oil  mess, actually opening up the gushing well and making it gush more  became direction BP took after confirming that there was a leak. In fact  if you note their actions, that should become clear. They have shifted  from stopping or restricting the gusher to opening it up and catching  it. This only makes sense if they want to relieve pressure at the leak  hidden down below the seabed&#8230;..and that sort of leak is one of the  most dangerous and potentially damaging kind of leak there could be. It  is also inaccessible which compounds our problems. There is no way to  stop that leak from above, all they can do is relieve the pressure on it  and the only way to do that right now is to open up the nozzle above  and gush more oil into the gulf and hopefully catch it, which they have  done, they just neglected to tell us why, gee thanks.<\/p>\n<p>A down hole leak is dangerous and damaging for several reasons.<br \/>\nThere will be erosion throughout the entire beat up, beat on and beat  down remainder of the &#8220;system&#8221; including that inaccessible leak. The  same erosion I spoke about in the first post is still present and has  never stopped, cannot be stopped, is impossible to stop and will always  be present in and acting on anything that is left which has crude oil  &#8220;Product&#8221; rushing through it. There are abrasives still present,  swirling flow will create hot spots of wear and this erosion is  relentless and will always be present until eventually it wears away  enough material to break it&#8217;s way out. It will slowly eat the bop away  especially at the now pinched off riser head and it will flow more and  more. Perhaps BP can outrun or keep up with that out flow with various  suckage methods for a period of time, but eventually the well will win  that race, just how long that race will be?&#8230;no one really  knows&#8230;.However now?&#8230;there are other problems that a down hole leak  will and must produce that will compound this already bad situation.<\/p>\n<p>This down hole leak will undermine the foundation of the seabed in  and around the well area. It also weakens the only thing holding up the  massive Blow Out Preventer&#8217;s immense bulk of 450 tons. In fact?&#8230;we are  beginning to the results of the well&#8217;s total integrity beginning to  fail due to the undermining being caused by the leaking well bore.<\/p>\n<p>The first layer of the sea floor in the gulf is mostly lose material  of sand and silt. It doesn&#8217;t hold up anything and isn&#8217;t meant to, what  holds the entire subsea system of the Bop in place is the well itself.  The very large steel connectors of the initial well head &#8220;spud&#8221; stabbed  in to the sea floor. The Bop literally sits on top of the pipe and never  touches the sea bed, it wouldn&#8217;t do anything in way of support if it  did. After several tens of feet the seabed does begin to support the  well connection laterally (side to side) you couldn&#8217;t put a 450 ton  piece of machinery on top of a 100&#8242; tall pipe &#8220;in the air&#8221; and subject  it to the side loads caused by the ocean currents and expect it not to  bend over&#8230;unless that pipe was very much larger than the machine  itself, which you all can see it is not. The well&#8217;s piping in comparison  is actually very much smaller than the Blow Out Preventer and strong as  it may be, it relies on some support from the seabed to function and  not literally fall over&#8230;and it is now showing signs of doing just  that&#8230;.falling over.<\/p>\n<p>If you have been watching the live feed cams you may have noticed  that some of the ROVs are using an inclinometer&#8230;and inclinometer is an  instrument that measures &#8220;Incline&#8221; or tilt. The BOP is not supposed to  be tilting&#8230;and after the riser clip off operation it has begun to&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>This is not the only problem that occurs due to erosion of the outer  area of the well casings. The way a well casing assembly functions it  that it is an assembly of different sized &#8220;tubes&#8221; that decrease in size  as they go down. These tubes have a connection to each other that is not  unlike a click or snap together locking action. After a certain length  is assembled they are cemented around the ouside to the earth that the  more rough drill hole is bored through in the well making process. A  very well put together and simply explained process of &#8220;How to drill a  deep water oil well&#8221; is available <a href=\"http:\/\/www.treesfullofmoney.com\/?p=1610\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The well bore casings rely on the support that is created by the  cementing phase of well construction. Just like if you have many hands  holding a pipe up you could put some weight on the top and the many  hands could hold the pipe and the weight on top easily&#8230;but if there  were no hands gripping and holding the pipe?&#8230;all the weight must be  held up by the pipe alone. The series of connections between the  sections of casings are not designed to hold up the immense weight of  the BOP without all the &#8220;hands&#8221; that the cementing provides and they  will eventually buckle and fail when stressed beyond their design  limits.<\/p>\n<p>These are clear and present dangers to the battered subsea safety  structure (bop and lmrp) which is the only loose cork on this well we  have left. The immediate (first 1,000 feet) of well structure that  remains is now also undoubtedly compromised. However&#8230;..as bad as that  is?&#8230;it is far from the only possible problems with this very  problematic well. There were ongoing troubles with the entire process  during the drilling of this well. There were also many comprises made by  BP IMO which may have resulted in an overall weakened structure of the  entire well system all the way to the bottom plug which is over 12,000  feet deep. Problems with the cementing procedure which was done by  Haliburton and was deemed as \u201cwas against our best practices.\u201d by a  Haliburton employee on April 1st weeks before the well blew out. There  is much more and I won&#8217;t go into detail right now concerning the lower  end of the well and the troubles encountered during the whole creation  of this well and earlier &#8220;Well control&#8221; situations that were revieled in  various internal BP e-mails. I will add several links to those  documents and quotes from them below and for now, address the issues  concerning the upper portion of the well and the region of the sea  floor.<\/p>\n<p>What is likely to happen now?<\/p>\n<p>Well&#8230;none of what is likely to happen is good, in fact&#8230;it&#8217;s about  as bad as it gets. I am convinced the erosion and compromising of the  entire system is accelerating and attacking more key structural areas of  the well, the blow out preventer and surrounding strata holding it all  up and together. This is evidenced by the tilt of the blow out preventer  and the erosion which has exposed the well head connection. What  eventually will happen is that the blow out preventer will literally tip  over if they do not run supports to it as the currents push on it. I  suspect they will run those supports as cables tied to anchors very  soon, if they don&#8217;t, they are inviting disaster that much sooner.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually even that will be futile as the well casings cannot  support the weight of the massive system above with out the cement bond  to the earth and that bond is being eroded away. When enough is eroded  away the casings will buckle and the BOP will collapse the well. If and  when you begin to see oil and gas coming up around the well area from  under the BOP? or the area around the well head connection and casing  sinking more and more rapidly? &#8230;it won&#8217;t be too long after that the  entire system fails. BP must be aware of this, they are mapping the sea  floor sonically and that is not a mere exercise. Our Gov&#8217;t must be well  aware too, they just are not telling us.<\/p>\n<p>All of these things lead to only one place, a fully wide open well  bore directly to the oil deposit&#8230;after that, it goes into the realm of  &#8220;the worst things you can think of&#8221; The well may come completely apart  as the inner liners fail. There is still a very long drill string in the  well, that could literally come flying out&#8230;as I said&#8230;all the worst  things you can think of are a possibility, but the very least damaging  outcome as bad as it is, is that we are stuck with a wide open gusher  blowing out 150,000 barrels a day of raw oil or more. There isn&#8217;t any  &#8220;cap dome&#8221; or any other suck fixer device on earth that exists or could  be built that will stop it from gushing out and doing more and more  damage to the gulf. While at the same time also doing more damage to the  well, making the chance of halting it with a kill from the bottom up  less and less likely to work, which as it stands now?&#8230;.is the only  real chance we have left to stop it all.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a race now&#8230;a race to drill the relief wells and take our last  chance at killing this monster before the whole weakened, wore out,  blown out, leaking and failing system gives up it&#8217;s last gasp in a  horrific crescendo.<\/p>\n<p>We are not even 2 months into it, barely half way by even optimistic  estimates. The damage done by the leaked oil now is virtually  immeasurable already and it will not get better, it can only get worse.  No matter how much they can collect, there will still be thousands and  thousands of gallons leaking out every minute, every hour of every day.  We have 2 months left before the relief wells are even near in position  and set up to take a kill shot and that is being optimistic as I said.<\/p>\n<p>Over the next 2 months the mechanical situation also cannot improve,  it can only get worse, getting better is an impossibility. While they  may make some gains on collecting the leaked oil, the structural  situation cannot heal itself. It will continue to erode and flow out  more oil and eventually the inevitable collapse which cannot be stopped  will happen. It is only a simple matter of who can &#8220;get there  first&#8221;&#8230;us or the well.<\/p>\n<p>We can only hope the race against that eventuality is one we can win,  but my assessment I am sad to say is that we will not.<\/p>\n<p>The system will collapse or fail substantially before we reach the  finish line ahead of the well and the worst is yet to come.<\/p>\n<p>Sorry to bring you that news, I know it is grim, but that is the way I  see it&#8230;.I sincerely hope I am wrong.<\/p>\n<p>We need to prepare for the possibility of this blow out sending more  oil into the gulf per week then what we already have now, because that  is what a collapse of the system will cause. All the collection efforts  that have captured oil will be erased in short order. The magnitude of  this disaster will increase exponentially by the time we can do anything  to halt it and our odds of actually even being able to halt it will go  down.<\/p>\n<p>The magnitude and impact of this disaster will eclipse anything we  have known in our life times if the worst or even near worst happens&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>We are seeing the puny forces of man vs the awesome forces of nature.<br \/>\nWe are going to need some luck and a lot of effort to win&#8230;<br \/>\nand if nature decides we ought to lose, we will&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>Reference materials:<\/p>\n<p>On April 1, a job log written by a Halliburton employee, Marvin  Volek, warns that BP\u2019s use of cement \u201cwas<br \/>\nagainst our best practices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An April 18 internal Halliburton memorandum indicates that  Halliburton again warned BP about its practices,<br \/>\nthis time saying that a \u201csevere\u201d gas flow problem would occur if the  casings were not centered more carefully.<\/p>\n<p>Around that same time, a BP document <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/06\/06\/us\/06rig.html?pagewanted=1&amp;sq=at_issue...\">shows<\/a>, company officials chose a  type of casing with a greater risk of collapsing.<\/p>\n<p>Mark Hafle, the BP drilling engineer who wrote plans for well casings  and cement seals on the Deepwater<br \/>\nHorizon&#8217;s well, testified that the well had lost thousands of barrels of  mud at the bottom. But he said models run onshore showed alterations to the cement program would resolve the  issues, and when asked if a cement failure allowed the well to &#8220;flow&#8221; gas and oil, he wouldn&#8217;t capitulate.<\/p>\n<p>Hafle said he made several changes to casing designs in the last few  days before the well blew, including the addition of the two casing liners that weren&#8217;t part of the original well  design because of problems where the earthen sides of the well were &#8220;ballooning.&#8221; He also worked with  Halliburton engineers to design a plan for sealing the well casings with cement. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nola.com\/news\/gulf-oil-spill\/index.ssf\/2010\/05\/hearings_bp_ce...\">Here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/media.nola.com\/news_impact\/other\/oil-cause-050710.pdf\">Graphic of fail<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com\/files\/OGL00001.gif\">Casing joint<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com\/files\/OGL00003.gif\">Casing<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/preview.bloomberg.com\/news\/2010-06-02\/bp-gulf-of-mexico-oil-leak-...\">Kill may take<\/a> until Christmas<\/p>\n<p>BP <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/05\/27\/us\/27rig.html\">Used Riskier Method<\/a> to Seal Well Before Blast<\/p>\n<p>BP <a href=\"http:\/\/energycommerce.house.gov\/Press_111\/20100512\/Internal.BP.Email.Reg...\">memo test results<\/a><br \/>\n<a title=\"http:\/\/energycommerce.house.gov\/Press_111\/20100512\/Internal.BP.Email.Regarding.Negative.Test.Results.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/energycommerce.house.gov\/Press_111\/20100512\/Internal.BP.Email.Regarding.Negative.Test.Results.pdf\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Investigation results<\/p>\n<p>The information from BP identifies several new warning signs of  problems. According to BP there were three flow indicators from the well before the explosion. <a href=\"http:\/\/energycommerce.house.gov\/documents\/20100525\/Memo.BP.Internal.Inve...\">Here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>BP, what we know: <a href=\"http:\/\/energycommerce.house.gov\/documents\/20100512\/BP-What.We.Know.pdf\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>What could have happened<\/p>\n<p>1. Before or during the cement job, an influx of hydrocarbon enters  the wellbore.<br \/>\n2. Influx is circulated during cement job to wellhead and BOP.<br \/>\n3. 9-7\/8\u201d casing hanger packoff set and positively tested to 6500 psi.<br \/>\n4. After 16.5 hours waiting on cement, a negative test performed on  wellbore below BOP.<br \/>\n(~ 1400 psi differential pressure on 9-7\/8\u201d casing hanger packoff and ~  2350 psi on<br \/>\ndouble valve float collar)<br \/>\n5. Packoff leaks allowing hydrocarbon to enter wellbore below BOP. 1400  psi shut in<br \/>\npressure observed on drill pipe (no flow or pressure observed on kill  line)<br \/>\n6. Hydrocarbon below BOP is unknowingly circulated to surface while  finishing displacing<br \/>\nthe riser.<br \/>\n7. As hydrocarbon rises to surface, gas break out of solution further  reduces hydrostatic<br \/>\npressure in well. Well begin to flow, BOPs and Emergency Disconnect  System (EDS)<br \/>\nactivated but failed.<br \/>\n8. Packoff continues to leak allowing further influx from bottom.<br \/>\nConfidential<br \/>\n<a title=\"http:\/\/energycommerce.house.gov\/documents\/20100512\/BP-What.Could.Have.Happened.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/energycommerce.house.gov\/documents\/20100512\/BP-What.Could.Have.Happened.pdf\">http:\/\/energycommerce.house.gov\/documents\/20100512\/BP-What.Could.Have.Ha&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>T\/A daily log 4-20<br \/>\n<a title=\"http:\/\/energycommerce.house.gov\/documents\/20100512\/TRO-Daily.Drilling.Report.04.20.2010.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/energycommerce.house.gov\/documents\/20100512\/TRO-Daily.Drilling.Report.04.20.2010.pdf\">http:\/\/energycommerce.house.gov\/documents\/20100512\/TRO-Daily.Drilling.Re&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Cement plug 12,150 ft SCMT logging tool<br \/>\nSCMT (Slim Cement Mapping Tool)<br \/>\nSchlumberger Partial CBL done.<br \/>\n<a title=\"http:\/\/energycommerce.house.gov\/documents\/20100530\/BP-HZN-CEC018441.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/energycommerce.house.gov\/documents\/20100530\/BP-HZN-CEC018441.pdf\">http:\/\/energycommerce.house.gov\/documents\/20100530\/BP-HZN-CEC018441.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Schlum CBL tools<br \/>\n<a title=\"http:\/\/www.slb.com\/~\/media\/Files\/production\/product_sheets\/well_integrity\/cement_bond_logging_tools.ashx\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.slb.com\/%7E\/media\/Files\/production\/product_sheets\/well_integrity\/cement_bond_logging_tools.ashx\">http:\/\/www.slb.com\/~\/media\/Files\/production\/product_sheets\/well_integrit&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Major concerns, well control, bop test.<br \/>\n<a title=\"http:\/\/energycommerce.house.gov\/documents\/20100530\/BP-HZN-CEC018375.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/energycommerce.house.gov\/documents\/20100530\/BP-HZN-CEC018375.pdf\">http:\/\/energycommerce.house.gov\/documents\/20100530\/BP-HZN-CEC018375.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Energy &amp; commerce links to docs.<br \/>\n<a title=\"http:\/\/energycommerce.house.gov\/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=1985:energy-a-commerce-committee-investigates-deepwater-horizon-rig-oil-spill&amp;catid=122:media-advisories&amp;Itemid=55\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/energycommerce.house.gov\/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=1985:energy-a-commerce-committee-investigates-deepwater-horizon-rig-oil-spill&amp;catid=122:media-advisories&amp;Itemid=55\">http:\/\/energycommerce.house.gov\/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=articl&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>well head on sea floor<br \/>\nhttp:\/\/nca-group.com\/bilder\/\/Trolla\/A.%20GVI%20of%20Trolla%20prior%20to%20WHP002%20(2).jpg<\/p>\n<p>Well head on deck of ship<br \/>\n<a title=\"http:\/\/nca-group.com\/bilder\/\/Trolla\/DSC_0189.JPG\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/nca-group.com\/bilder\/\/Trolla\/DSC_0189.JPG\">http:\/\/nca-group.com\/bilder\/\/Trolla\/DSC_0189.JPG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>BP&#8217;s youtube propoganda page, a lot of rarely seen vids here&#8230;.FWIW<br \/>\n<a title=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/DeepwaterHorizonJIC\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/DeepwaterHorizonJIC\">http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/DeepwaterHorizonJIC<\/a><br \/>\n<a title=\"http:\/\/www.godlikeproductions.com\/forum1\/message1097505\/pg1\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.godlikeproductions.com\/forum1\/message1097505\/pg1\">http:\/\/www.godlikeproductions.com\/forum1\/message1097505\/pg1<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Friends alerted me to the following analysis of the oil leak, which seems somewhat more professionally &amp; technically savvy (&amp; way scarier) than anything else I&#8217;ve read. The conclusion the author comes to after&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,46,67,1],"tags":[206,368,725],"class_list":["post-3867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-fossil-fuel","category-man-made-disaster","category-uncategorized","tag-bp","tag-gulf-oil-disaster","tag-top-kill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}