Posts Tagged ‘blowout protection’
Oil now leaking from Gulf disaster piping – UPDATED
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission
Oil appears not to be flowing from a sunken drilling rig and damaged well in the Gulf of Mexico, but hope was dimming as search continued for 11 workers missing in the disaster, said the U.S. Coast Guard.
“As of right now, the spill is not growing,” a U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman said.
A remotely operated unmanned submarine sent down Thursday to inspect the scene found no oil leaking from the sunken Transocean Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and no oil flowing from the well, reducing the risk of a major spill, a spokeswoman said…
But 11 workers remained missing despite an intensive search and it was feared they were unable to escape the blast.
The Transocean Deepwater Horizon sank Thursday after burning since Tuesday following an explosion while trying to temporarily cap a new well drilled for BP 42 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana.
The blast occurred about 10 p.m. CDT Tuesday as the rig was capping a discovery well pending production, company officials said. Some 115 of the 126 workers on board at the time of the explosion were rescued.
I’m truly glad to see that the blowout protection systems appear to be working.
Obviously not as designed – for that would have prevented the explosion and resulting fire, loss of life and the rig. But, one of the critical portions of such systems is closing the wellhead and preventing an oil spill.
Folks will still need to get down to the bottom and properly cap the well. No doubt the process will include drilling an ancillary well to access the original production holes.
UPDATE: Capping the well acquires a higher priority now that risers and drill pipe from the wellhead are leaking oil at a rate approximated at 1000 barrels a day.
This is a serious rate – and although the blowout protection system did its job, the drill rig components failed as a result of the explosion and mechanical forces exerted on the drilling system.
