The Gulf Disaster: a geologists take

Zz Yzx · 2010-06-18T01:04:43+00:00

I'm a geologist by trade. In a former life I spent a few yearsworking oil rigs, a couple of those on offshore rigs. Here's myanalysis and worst fears, based on what I've gleaned from the newsreports.Analysis:1. To save time/$, they didn't circulate the mud in the borehole("bottoms up") before they set the liner. Had they done so, theywould have identified the disasterous conditions before the disaster.2. To save time/$, they "hung" the liner (ran it only from the bottomof the previous casing, rather than run it all the way up inside theprevious casing to the BOP).3. To save time/$, they used only 6 liner centralizers rather than the"recommended" 21 (recommended by whom I don't know). If the holedeviated at all from vertical (which I'm sure it did), that'd meanthat in places, the liner would be placed up against the boreholesidewall rather than through the center of the borehole. That'd makeit very hard to get an adequate cement seal of consistent thicknessand strength along the entire length of the liner.4. To save time/$, they used an inferior cement mix.5. To save time/$, they didn't run a "cement bond log". To do this,they run a special tool on a wire line through the recently cementedinterval, and log the qyaulity of the cement bond between the linerand the formation.6. To save time/$, they displaced the drilling mud in the riser (abovethe BOP up to the drill rig on the surface) with sea water before theinferior cement had completely set, and without the normal plug in thecasing below the BOP. This would drastically reduce the pressure headon the formation, and allow formation fluids to enter the borehole.Now my "worst case" fear:The bad cement job outside the liner failed; the gas/oil in theformation, under intense pressure (could be as high as 50,000 psi!)blew out and eroded the cement and possibly the liner, allowing it toflow unimpeded and expand quickly due to the pressure release, intothe annular space outside the liner, and possibly into the...

Jun 18, 2010 84 Replies

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Jack Stein 16 years ago

Yeah, thats the headline alright....

What a maroon!

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Robatoy 16 years ago

So you think that's their only motive?

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Robatoy 16 years ago

When are you going to grow a sense of humour?

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Upscale 16 years ago

He's not mentally capable of it.

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Jack Stein 16 years ago

Mea Culpa.

I notice the bammer meister has now included himself in stopping the leak and pressure testing the cap. Even a maroon like yourself should recognize how your humor attempt would conflict with the bammers delusions.

He should be in jail for blocking every effort to minimize the environmental damage caused by the spill. If I didn't give him credit for being one of the dumbest humans on earth, I'd give him credit for causing the spill itself to further his cap and tax bullshit agenda.

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