Why the BP well was destroyed instead of repaired

I can’t be the only person to think of this and if I missed it when I searched then I apologize.

I work in hydrogeology and am very familiar with well technology. It would have been possible to repair the BP Deepwater Horizon well in a conventional way, even with the unconventional circumstances. You would have simply used what is called an inflatable packer.

There is a 10-inch diameter casing at the seafloor attached to the failed control structure. First you remove the debris from the work site and then cut the 10-inch well casing. At this point the oil and gas would be flowing out unabated. You next lower a 14-inch diameter casing with an inflatable packer installed at the bottom. The packer is like a rubber doughnut that fits inside the pipe. As the petrochemicals are flowing up out of the 10-inch casing, you lower the unrestricted 14-inch over the 10-inch so that it goes outside the other. Once you inflate the packer it seals them together, the petrochemicals will be forced up the 14” casing. You close a valve on the 14” casing on the surface and you have a working well that is under control and not flowing. If the pressure demanded use of 2 packers or a sleeve to be run down the outside it’s just a matter of simple engineering.

Instead of doing the slam dunk typical fix, BP tried all these ideas as if they came out of an Acme catalogue. You knew they wouldn’t work before they tried them. I noticed a common theme though.

Remember the dome and then the top kill. ALL of the BP plans involved the destruction of the well, or at least having it sealed off and inaccessible.

The reason for this is clear to me. If the well was working, then you could put a gage on it and test it, you would know what kind of head pressure it has (incidentally then so would the rest of the world). With that value it’s a simple equation to calculate how much oil and gas truly escaped since the disaster began. If you have to provide retributions for the amount of spill then it’s in your best interest that no one has a testable well.

reply to post by Nickodemus


Thanks for posting this. I am not an engineer or a geologist, so I would not have even imagined that there was such a simple and uncomplicated fix.

I agree that BP doesn't want to pay fines for the barrels of oil released; that is why, IMO, they have only collected some of the oil. They have burned and dispersed more oil than they have collected, which has raised my ire.

S & F to you for bringing this to our attention!

If I was the consultant to BP I might have instructed them to use this problem to get a whole wellfield permitted out there at the site. I wouldn't be surprised if the "relief-wells" have a duel purpose a few years from now as production wells.

Conspiracy enthusiasts will enjoy his... very often a well is dug for multiple purposes.

For example, suppose a client wants a water supply well for irrigation on their site, however they cannot get it permitted because of the drawdown impact issues it might have in their water poor region. Many of these restrictions are based off speculation and not good data. I would most likely be able to get them a permit to dig a test well. The digging process would give me valuable lithologic information and then I would test the well. If the results showed that when I pumped this test well that the impacts are minimal, I would write a report suggesting the permit be modified so that the test well can be classified and used as a production well. This would be the least expensive way for the client to get what they want, one well, and one permit. My proposed test well design would be really a design for a production well from the beginning. Of course if the tests showed that the well created unacceptable drawdown impacts then the client would be out of luck and I couldn’t recommend the permit modification. At least data for the area would now be available.

I think the problem with BP in many ways is that they had too many lawyers and bean counters making the judgment calls instead of their scientists and engineers who probably took the ominous data more seriously.

Until they put out some information on subsurface leaking I’ll stray away from that topic and the poor grout job… the trickle of information is very frustrating.

Gee, there must have been a lot of dinosaurs living under the ocean. This is supposed to be fossil fuel, is it not?
Seems odd that dinosaurs could have even been covered over that deep down.

Originally posted by Alethea
Gee, there must have been a lot of dinosaurs living under the ocean. This is supposed to be fossil fuel, is it not?
Seems odd that dinosaurs could have even been covered over that deep down.

Fossil fuels are made from dead plants, animals, heat, pressure and time in an environment without oxygen. Mostly plants from ancient swamps make up the carbon. This was started a verrrry long time ago when the oceans looked different. All the energy originated from the sun since the plants only converted it through photosynthesis, and then geological metamorphosis converted them into oil and gas. If you’re unwilling to believe that oil is created organically you might enjoy researching abiotic oil for a totally different take on the origin of our fossil fuels.

"The reason for this is clear to me. If the well was working, then you could put a gage on it and test it, you would know what kind of head pressure it has (incidentally then so would the rest of the world). "

BP told us all what the pressure at the wellhead was when they first sealed it on July 15th 2010 with the containment cap.

www.nationalpost.com...

reply to post by ommadawn


I don't believe in the validity of the July 15th data, it was inconclusive. The pressure values are below the estimated minimum, implying a leak. I would rather have a proven, non-leaking well with a gage on the surface instead of a submerged sonde. It would be more credible if given enough time for the pressure to stabilize and then measured by an independent party.

www.cbsnews.com...

reply to post by Nickodemus


You are correct on your analyst about the well head being capped for law suit and retribution purposes. We now know the well head has been caped and plugged down below but what we do not know is how much oil is spewing and seeping up through the Gulf floor far removed from the well head. ^Y^

reply to post by amari


Hydraulic conductivity is the term used to describe the rate that fluid moves through a medium. The ratio of horizontal and vertical hydraulic conductivity is called the anisotropy ratio. Typically in sand the ratio is between 3-5:1. That means there is a 3-5 times greater movement horizontal then vertical.
Potential subsurface leakage from the BP is very interesting indeed.

kilo newtons dispersed across an inflatable would be massive not saying it cant be done just saying, another method would be to pump gas back into the well sealing the cavity. oil rigs usually send caustic solvents down the rig to clear gases trapped in the pipe and and subcontainouse surface under the well pipe mount

reply to post by Grimnal


Good point. The PSI is large but manageable, remember this is only a 10-inch diameter casing; packers have worked at higher pressures with larger diameter wells. Don’t underestimate the strength of formulated rubber. Once the packer is in place a mechanical joint could ride down the outside of the casing and then be fastened robotically for addition coupling before you deadhead the valve on the surface.

I think they did try to stabilize the hole by injecting bentonite slurry; it consequently and predictably got blown back out, preventing the intended plugging. It was like spraying a garden hose into a fire hose. The big fear is once they plugged it, then the well would just leak underground out of the next path of least resistance. Drilling mud (bentonite slurry) needs only to circulate through the borehole to find the fissures and fill them. That is why to me the attempted plugging was really only to prep the well to be capped by minimizing the shallow leaks below land surface by bentonite. They didn’t have a good seal so there was not enough pressure to overpower the well’s head pressure and grout. If they inject high pressure drilling fluid, compressed gas and solvents the fear is they would create a hydrofracking situation and open up seeps all over the seafloor around the well. The well penetrates geologic confining units and injecting high pressure could perforate these confining units away from the well and create an unpredictable and uncontrollable situation.

This plugging contradicts my post though, because I don’t want them to plug and abandon the well, I wanted to see it rehabilitated. It’s probably too late now since we slayed this well as the demon, the focus on progress is diverted to having the savior relief wells, and I believe they will be used for production wells in the future. Even with the disaster, the energy guys don’t want to walk away from this potential wellfield. Create problem/guide reaction/implement originally desired solution.

Originally posted by Nickodemus


This plugging contradicts my post though, because I don’t want them to plug and abandon the well, I wanted to see it rehabilitated. It’s probably too late now since we slayed this well as the demon, the focus on progress is diverted to having the savior relief wells, and I believe they will be used for production wells in the future. Even with the disaster, the energy guys don’t want to walk away from this potential wellfield. Create problem/guide reaction/implement originally desired solution.

Awesome post. Nice to read somoene who seems so informed.

As far as walking away from the well, it would appear this new "Atlantis" platform they are working on would tap the same reservoir, yes?

www.businessweek.com...

Atlantis Production The Deepwater Horizon, owned by Transocean Ltd., was under contract to BP about 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of the Atlantis platform. The damaged well leaked more than 4 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf. BP insists the Atlantis, its second-largest Gulf production platform, is safe and in compliance with federal regulations. The Atlantis can produce 200,000 barrels of oil and 180 million cubic feet of gas daily from waters ranging from 4,400 feet to 7,200 feet deep.