"Top Kill" has started

Engineers have begun the "top kill" maneuver aimed at stanching the gush of oil from a blown-out well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, BP and U.S. Coast Guard confirmed.

The much-awaited procedure began at 1 p.m. Central Daylight Time, according to BP.

The maneuver, which BP officials warned could take hours or days to complete, would attempt to overpower the upward flow of oil by pumping drilling fluid -- and eventually a cement mixture -- at high pressure down the well. Several hundred engineers in Houston have prepped for the effort for weeks.

Source

So it begins..the process to stop it. We'll see how far this one goes.

This is old news, THIS FAILED.

Originally posted by nite owl
This is old news, THIS FAILED.

Top Kill has failed? Source for such accusations?

reply to post by nite owl


How do you know this? They only started about an hour ago...

edit to add: watching it here at the moment, can't really tell what's happening though.


[edit on 26-5-2010 by Chris McGee]

Originally posted by Chris McGee
reply to post by nite owl

 

How do you know this? They only started about an hour ago...

lol exactly. I'm pretty curious to see where this goes. But it's about time they do something productive about the spill.

Originally posted by nite owl
This is old news, THIS FAILED.

His Flag Contributor rank discredits your predictions.
I had not seen this before myself.

Internet bloggers are claiming that this procedure was actually what was witnessed a few nights ago when the riser appeared to "blow up" again and the sea floor was dramatically disturbed. The flow turned to a muddy color and then the video feed was interrupted/offline/looped, or whatever.

On the other hand, BP has been claiming that they would begin the Top Kill approach on Wednesday (today) and that it may take up to 2 days to see any progress.

I don't know who to believe anymore, but I hope this has a chance. It is probably too late to save the Gulf, but at least we can save the Atlantic!!

If they don't stop very, very soon, the damage will be irreversible.

reply to post by Chris McGee


Actually they started last night:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by nite owl
This is old news, THIS FAILED.

I'm watching it live. How did it "fail"? It just started.

I just reconnected to the feed, it looks..... scary, i hope that stuff gushing out is the mud.

Originally posted by Prove_It_NOW

Originally posted by nite owl
This is old news, THIS FAILED.

I'm watching it live. How did it "fail"? It just started.

It hasn't yet.. it was just a theory.

6:58 eastern time. That is mud. They are pumping like no one’s business.

The game is on!

edit.........

Ow…… and your diagram of the operation is wrong.

The mud isn’t there to clog up the BOP. That is what a junk shot would do.

The point of a top kill is to pump the mud in below the restriction so fast, that it can’t escape fast enough (via the restriction). The only place for it to go is down the hole.

At first, all you have to do is pump it just fast enough to get some positive mud flow down the hole. As more mud goes down the hole, it adds to the pressure pushing back on the well pressure. When you get enough, the mud in the column will overcome the well pressure and self feed into the well and that is that. Well killed.


[edit on 26-5-2010 by Mr Tranny]

Did it work?

They started this yesterday, allegedly, but I've heard no news since then. Is there a dissasterous reason for this, or did i miss the "BP have saved the world at last" thread?