Comments on: Oil

By: What to do about the Gulf oil spill

What to do about the Gulf oil spill — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 07:06:57 +0000

[...] Read the rest of the post here. [...]

By: Chips Reid

Chips Reid — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 04:04:27 +0000

I was an oil man in Trinidad. My job was to collect waste oil from an oil field to prevent it contaminating sugar cane and rice fields. When we had floods no booms could stop it as it flowed beneath the boom.
So I have no solution to the polution problem.
But as an Oilwell Drilling Engineer I can offer some perspectives regarding what needs to be done immediatley to stop the flow and what needs to be done in the future to reduce the extent of damage from an uncontrollable blowout/leak from a drilled well in such depths of water where divers cannot work on the seabed around the well head. In other words where we are today in the Gulf ( 5000 ft of water) and where we are drilling right now in Newfoundland, canada (7000 feet of water).

The well was drilled very deep to 18,500 ft into the earth. The natural bottom hole pressure is huge! 9000-10,000 psi! Drilling into oil or gas bearing rock formations without a pre-drilled pilot relief well cased already to substantial depth ( perhaps 7000 feet or so) is insane.That must be required in all future ultra deep ocean drilling

The government insisted that BP drill not one but two relief wells. Quite right! There could be problems at that depth and they could lose the first relief well due to a hurricane, loss of circulation and stuck pipe in the hole etc etc. There is no sure thing when drilling a well especially to these depths and in 5000 ft of water.

The relief well’s objective is to penetrate the well bore of the blowing well. This must be done sufficiently deep to provide enough “head” to control the bottom hole pressure , So probably the relief well will need to go to the extreme depth of 17000 to 18000 ft. That’s why it will not be until at least August before they finish drilling to such a depth.

Once you penetrate the original well bore then you circulate ( pump down) heavy drilling mud while closing off flow up the annulus of the relief well and forcing the mud up the well to be killed. The total column of mud, if sufficient, from a depth of 17000 ft to surface once no longer being contaminated by oil and gas will gradually stop the upward flow of oil and gas. Immediately liquid cement of high density is pumped behind the mud to fill the well bore displacing the mud. In time, if static conditions are met ( no flow), the cement will set and then we are safe.

I can suggest more in a post to follow on changes to the International Law of the Sea to control how drill ships in ultra deep waters must operate in the future to reduce such extensive pollution of the sea.

Chips Reid, Drilling Engineer (retired)

By: Mish

Mish — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 22:13:58 +0000

The whole mess sickens me and pisses me off. With the need and demand for oil, society has backed itself into a corner. I loathe that I need a car because my local public transportation consists of taxis. Like others lifestyle adjustments have been made, but we’re outnumbered by those who don’t give a damn. Even if more lifestyle and legal changes are made and although I believe Earth can manage some repairs, I can’t help but wonder if it’s too little too late.

By: Mary Robinette Kowal

Mary Robinette Kowal — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 20:35:15 +0000

Thanks so much for writing this, Cherie. I completely get what you are saying and have been trying to adjust my lifestyle so that I buy locally and walk, bike, or bus wherever possible. (ProfessorTom: A bike doesn’t actually need to be lubed with petroleum products.)

I actually carry my own bamboo utensils for when I’m out so I can avoid using plastic ones.

The current generation might not have developed the reliance on oil but that doesn’t absolve us of the responsibility for continuing the trend. Other countries have made pledges to live without oil and are making strides toward doing that.

The technology is there but it will mean making lifestyle changes.

The best analogy of Environment 101 that I’ve heard is from Paolo Bacigalupi. Check out what Paolo has to say.

By: Jody

Jody — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 19:48:38 +0000

What a bunch of claptrap. “We” didn’t do anything. Even were most of us able to bike to work, the need for oil would still exist and has been in place since before our grandparents were adults at the least.
What’s more, many other oil companies are operating with much better records than BP. See the Daily Show’s hilarious take down that talked about the huge gap in BP’s safety violations with respect to other companies.
No, what we have here is a case of several companies being really poor coporate citizens. They should be punished accordingly while industries continue to strive towards alternative energy solutions, to make th profitable, affordable, and accesable.

By: anita

anita — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 18:15:18 +0000

I disagree with your statement that “we” broke the ocean. I don’t own a car and do use public transportation – which, as has been pointed out, uses gas and oil. I buy groceries (transported by truck, whether it’s nationally, or at my local farmer’s market.) I buy household goods – transported by truck. Etc, etc, etc.

If that makes me culpable in your eyes, so be it. But until producers start shipping via rickshaw, we’re going to use gas and oil. I would love an alternate energy source for transportation, but no one’s listening to me.

BP ignored safety regulations and the fact that the valve was breaking up. They are solely responsible for this mess.

By: Dana in Philly

Dana in Philly — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 13:03:14 +0000

Cherie, I’m feeling so bad about this too. Struggling for a productive way to respond. Do you think it’s possible that we could make moving to a different energy economy the major issue in this November’s mid-term elections? What to do?

By: Joe Rodgers

Joe Rodgers — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 11:18:40 +0000

“we” may have broke the ocean, but I think that’s spreading the blame so thin that it’s meaningless.

Remember _Who Framed Roger Rabbit_? The bit where the public transit lines were to be bought up and replace with freeways? This really happened in about 20 markets- a consortium with a gas, tire and auto company bought up public transit and deliberately ran them into the ground. They were tried in a Chicago court, found guilty, and fined a whopping $500 for their sin.

Do I even need to point you to the ‘green zone’ map of Afghanistan? Compare that map with the route of the Oil pipeline, and you’ll see why we’re there to begin with. Iraq is no different

If I were to wholeheartedly share the blame here, I’d pretend we live in some kind of democracy. My money choices decide what happens to those starving polar bears. But it’s not my money choices, it’s the money choices of those who own the means of production. I’m just a renter here, and no amount of money I pay will induce these companies to behave less reprehensibly.

It’s not the items we buy, it’s not even the elections we vote in: it’s the system that owns us.

If you really want to take the gulf spill to heart, you’ll start looking into alternatives to capitalism. “The Market” is more to blame than simply “Us”. And it has no answers for this one.

By: Katy Love

Katy Love — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 20:24:19 +0000

My “second home” is Alabama and Gulf Shores area. Me and my family are crushed by this environmental nightmare. Power in the wrong hands.Good post.

By: Lydia

Lydia — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 19:38:57 +0000

Pensacola. Raised there from 6 months old, still think of it as home.

I remember getting ready for hurricanes, doing everything you can do, going through it and after, cleaning, putting things back together, going on — it took years for the blue roofs to disappear from Pensacola, after Kristina.

Even so, Mother Nature was a lot kinder to us than we have been to ourselves.