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Author Archives: zerbe
Worst Case Scenario of the Gulf Oil Leak
Referencing many posts from The Oil Drum, a blog often frequented by petroleum engineers and other oil-industry specialists, David Phillips lays out a worst case scenario for the Deepwater Horizon Oil Well. Hopefully this has been proven false by the … Continue reading
Posted in BOP
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Great Article on the Deepwater Horizon’s Last Day
The Wall Street Journal compiled a great article on the doomed rig’s last day and the divisive change of plans to use less drilling mud. Definitely worth the read. Read the full article here According to the investigation by the … Continue reading
Posted in Cause, Pre Explosion
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Raising the Blowout Preventer for Evidence
The raising of the BOP from the Macondo Well is not just a safety precaution. The BOP is also evidence that may reveal how the Gulf oil spill happened. The 450 ton BOP resting a mile below the surface of … Continue reading
Final Plugging of Macondo Well Scheduled for September
The U.S. government said the final plugging of BP’s blown-out Gulf well will begin sometime after Labor Day. Before then, engineers are planning a risky maneuver to replace the blowout prevent. The failed blowout preventer, a prime source of interest … Continue reading
BP’s Gulf Well May Not Be Permanently Killed Until September
There’s a new Bloomberg article out there that reports that a team of federal scientists and BP engineers is looking at either attaching a pressure-control system to the top of the well or installing a new blowout preventer, an emergency … Continue reading
New Systems to Cap Deepwater Wells in a Hurry
The Economist has a great article on the The Price of Staying in the Game for oil companies and their collective $1 billion effort to figure out what to do should a deepwater spill happen again. The companies involved outlined … Continue reading
Posted in Solution
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BP Must Finish Gulf of Mexico Relief Wells
National Incident Commander Thad Allen said a pressure test conducted yesterday failed to prove there is no further risk of oil leaking from the well. As a result, BP Plc has been ordered by U.S. officials to finish the relief … Continue reading
Posted in Solution
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To Proceed with the Relief Well?
National Incident Commander Thad Allen said today scientists are reviewing how to proceed after determining about 1,000 barrels of oil is trapped in the Macondo well by a cement plug poured from the top last week. Injecting mud and cement … Continue reading
Posted in Response
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OIL LEAK STOPPED THROUGH STATIC KILL PROCEDURE
BP successfully stopped the flow of oil from the leaking Macondo Well on July 15 after the well gushed an estimated 4.9 million barrels, making it the world’s largest offshore accidental oil spill (Bloomberg). Last week, BP pumped cement into … Continue reading
Oil Conversion
Here are some handy oil conversion numbers: one tonne of crude oil approximately 7.3 barrels of crude oil about 307 U.S. gallons of crude oil one barrel of crude oil 42 U.S. gallons of crude oil 159 liters of crude … Continue reading
Oil Pollution Act
The Oil Pollution Act “limits the liability of responsible parties for offshore facilities, such as the Deepwater Horizon facility, to all removal costs (i.e., direct cleanup cost) plus $75 million and other language places a limit of $3,200 per gross … Continue reading
Posted in Deepwater Drilling
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BP Starts Cement Plugging of Gulf Well
In what is being described as a ‘milestone’ for the Macondo Well in the Gulf of Mexico, BP began pouring cement into the well. Earlier this week, BP pumped heavy drilling mud into the top of the Macondo well, pushing … Continue reading
Static Kill Procedure to Begin Today
BP technicians are in final tests to determine whether to proceed with the plan to pump heavy drilling mud into the Macondo well. Tests today involved slow injections of mud into the well to make sure the pumped mud will … Continue reading
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New Snag for Static Kill
Efforts to permanently plug the gusher hit a snag when crews found debris in the bottom of the relief well that need to be fished out before crews can pump mud into BP’s busted well in a procedure known as … Continue reading
Posted in Solution
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$1.4 Million X Prize Challenge
X Prize announced a $1.4 million prize in a year-long competition to develop new, more effective methods of cleaning up oil on ocean surfaces. The prize is funded by Wendy Schmidt and the new technology must improve by at least … Continue reading
Michigan Oil Spill
A new oil spill of more than one million gallons threatens Lake Michigan. The oil spilled from a pipeline into the Kalamazoo River earlier this week. The leak came from a 30 inch pipeline that carries millions of gallons of … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
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Oil Spewing from Well Near Louisiana Marsh
Reports out that a tug boat hit an oil well off the coast of Louisiana shooting oil twenty feet into the air. The tug boat hit the well before dawn. The tug boat captain immediately notified officials, and another boat … Continue reading
Posted in Oil
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Sealing Cap and the Latest Well Update
The latest well integrity tests on the sealing cap show the Macondo well has been successfully closed. BP continues to monitor the pressure, temperature, seafloor, seismic, sonar, and acoustics activity in the area to confirm that the well doesn’t continue … Continue reading
New Oil Spill in China
The cost of increasingly risky means of obtaining oil is epitomized by the BP oil spill. We risk destroying our planet’s eco-system by not seriously embracing alternative forms of energy. China recently experienced its largest oil spill ever reported along … Continue reading
Posted in Oil
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