Category Archives: Solution

New Systems to Cap Deepwater Wells in a Hurry

Posted on August 13, 2010 by zerbe

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 →

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BP Must Finish Gulf of Mexico Relief Wells

Posted on August 13, 2010 by zerbe

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 →

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OIL LEAK STOPPED THROUGH STATIC KILL PROCEDURE

Posted on August 13, 2010 by zerbe

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 →

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BP Starts Cement Plugging of Gulf Well

Posted on August 5, 2010 by zerbe

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 →

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Static Kill Procedure to Begin Today

Posted on August 2, 2010 by zerbe

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

Posted on July 30, 2010 by zerbe

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 →

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$1.4 Million X Prize Challenge

Posted on July 29, 2010 by zerbe

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 →

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Let’s Hope This Works

Posted on July 29, 2010 by zerbe
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Sealing Cap and the Latest Well Update

Posted on July 26, 2010 by zerbe

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 →

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Relief Well Progress

Posted on July 22, 2010 by zerbe

Here is the latest on the two relief wells’ progress. Image courtesy of BP. © BP p.l.c.

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New BP Cap Procedure

Posted on July 13, 2010 by zerbe

Here is the latest attempt to stop the flow of oil from the leaking well. Let’s hope it works. Once the new cap is installed tests will be performed to calculate the pressure of the oil flowing from the pipe. … Continue reading →

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BP Status Update

Posted on June 23, 2010 by zerbe

Blow Out Preventer Detail BP technical briefing and update on Gulf of Mexico oil spill 10 May 2010 Tony Hayward Failure of the Large Dome: A lot more gas involved in leak than previously believed. Moving to a smaller dome … Continue reading →

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Small Top Hat

Posted on June 21, 2010 by zerbe

Here are some images of the small top hat that is currently being used to recover around 11,000 barrels of oil in a twelve hour period (ranges vary from 7,780 to 14,570 barrels).

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Methane Hydrates

Posted on June 21, 2010 by zerbe

Use the methane hydrates that blocked the flow of oil in the first dome to freeze the BOP preventer and liquid inside the containment dome. Instead of having this be a hinderance for the subsea leak stopping, use it to … Continue reading →

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Really Interesting Idea from Scott at the mindshaftgap

Posted on June 18, 2010 by zerbe

Here is a great article from Scott at the mindshaftgap.  He explores using liquid nitrogen to increase the viscosity of oil and eventually freeze it.  The article also provides some great figures and graphs on oil at varying temperatures.  The … Continue reading →

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Stop the BP Oil Leak

Posted on June 11, 2010 by zerbe

The BP Oil spill is a tragedy on an epic scale.  The lack of any adequate resolution is a wake up call to the world of the trouble humans are capable of getting themselves in. My solution is to use … Continue reading →

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