ROVs starting top kill!

7:30PM eastern time. Yes that is mud.

The mud mixes with water, and clouds it. Oil just forms little oil drops floating around. mud is also heaver than water, so as soon as it comes out, in settles back down. Oil doesn’t settle, it continues a slow upward drift.

reply to post by Mr Tranny


well that mud is coming out of there like gangbusters!

Originally posted by JRho900
reply to post by berkeleygal

 

All of a sudden it is asking me to down load a plug in on the feed you linked. Is that normal?

It is an active X plugin to control/handle live dynamic streaming feeds. If you have already installed it before to watch some other live feed, you won’t have to reinstall it to watch this one.

Basically, to deal with missing packets. (That can’t be re-requested on a live feed)
Live video encoding changes.
On and on.

If a second of streaming data is lost, your computer won’t send a request for missing segments, like a normal buffered/recorded video. It will just display it as a second of frozen picture.

Remember people. This is a live digital feed coming off a ship floating on the ocean, being sent to a satellite 20,000 miles high, and received via a land based satiation to retransmit to the web. If a half second of data is lost on the sat link, the earth station won’t be able to do a danged thing with thousands of computers bickering about a half second of missing data stream.

So, that plugin is designed to stop that. To stop the computers on the receiving end from complaining about feed glitches, and to just deal with them..

I see 3 vents.

Is anything sticking? There is so much mud flying out.

Originally posted by CUin2013?
I see 3 vents.

Is anything sticking? There is so much mud flying out.

I think they need thicker mud.

The hole to the left is evidently higher in the pipe, and it is mainly gas coming out.

The two to the right is lower in the pipe and is dumping almost pure mud.

Notice how it is dark brown at the hole, and as it goes up, it mixes with water and thins out/lightens in color.

Gas will flow almost until the well is completely killed. The gas is so much lighter than everything else that it comes up through the mud, instead of being pushed back down by it. So it will keep coming to the surface until the gas/oil has completely stopped flowing from the formation, and all the gas has purged from the column.

So, when you see the stuff coming from the left hole, changes to pure mud, then they are winning/have won the fight

I think they are trying to pump enough mud past the holes so when they turn off the mud pumps it doesn't get pushed back out?

Originally posted by Just Wondering
I think they are trying to pump enough mud past the holes so when they turn off the mud pumps it doesn't get pushed back out?

No/Yes
No. They are not pumping mud past the holes.
Yes. They do want it so that it doesn't get pushed back out when they turn the mud off.

You have the busted riser at the top with the holes in it that we are watching now.

You have the blow out preventer (BOP) under that. It isn’t completely sealing off the well. But it is the only restriction in the system.

You have the choke and kill lines at the bottom of the BOP (restriction) that they are pumping the mud in.

You have the well head at the bottom of all that.

When mud enters the through the choke kill lines, it can take one of two paths. Go down, into the well. Or go up through the BOP and out the riser/ holes.

Remember this. When you have a restriction. Flow is proportional to pressure. If you increase flow, you will have to increase pressure to achieve that flow. If you increase pressure, then flow will increase.

When you pump mud in, it will increase the pressure in the well head. That is because it is a competing flow. The mud is competing for outlet volume. 10 units of oil coming out through an opening. If you add 1 unit of mud, it will either restrict the flow of oil if the oil source can’t produce any more pressure, or push up the pressure, until 11 units total can push through the same restriction.

If you do not pump mud in fast enough. The oil/gas will just carry the mud along with it, out the top of the BOP/riser. The increased pressure will slow the oil flow a bit, but not stop it.

At a critical point, if you pump mud just fast enough. It will take up all the volume of the outlet leak. It will push the wellhead pressure so high that the oil can’t push it’s way out. The mud hogs all the available outlet capacity.

Past the critical point. If you continue to increase pumping capacity. You would increase the pressure past the static pressure of the well below. When that happens, mud will flow into the well.

When you get enough mud in the well, it will kill the flow.

The critical property of drilling mud isn’t it’s stickiness. It is it’s weight. It is heavily doped with metals. It is far heaver than oil or water. It is basically liquid steel. When you get a large column of drilling mud in a pipe, it acts like a steel ram rod pushing down the hole. It literally pushes the oil back down the hole with it’s shear weight. Once you get enough mud in the hole, and get it stabilized/gas bled off. You no longer have to apply pressure at the top. It will hold the well in check by it’s self. That is basicly the normal state a well is in when it is being drilled. A blowout happens when you don’t have enough mud in the column to hold the well in check. When that happens, the whole column starts moving upward. That is called a kick. That is what the BOP is designed to catch.

reply to post by Mr Tranny
What is this we're waking up to today?

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