BP stops oil flow into Gulf of Mexico

BP stops oil flow into Gulf of Mexico

The effort to plug the flow of oil from the leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico has achieved a crucial milestone. BP engineers and US coastguard officials say the flow of oil into the ocean has stopped, although the well has not yet been successfully capped.

BP engineers yesterday began the so-called Top Kill operation to pump thousands of tonnes of mud into the well in an effort to fill the bore hole and block the passage of oil to the sea. Once the pressure in the bore had dropped to zero, they planned to cap the hole with concr

(visit the link for the full news article)

PB Stops Oil Flow





[edit on 28/5/10 by plumranch]

This afternoon, BP announced that the operation had succeeded in stopping the flow of oil but that there was a still small amount of pressure in the well which prevents them from capping it, according to the LA Times.

A live video feed of the leak from the bottom of the ocean now appears to show a plume of mud coming from the well.

So there is still mud coming out meaning that as long as they pump mud in it keeps the oil from coming out.

Doesn't sound like they have sealed the well yet but yet this is a major improvement from the 5,000 barrels a day leak!


(visit the link for the full news article)

New Scientist

[edit on 28/5/10 by plumranch]

BP engineers and US coastguard officials say the flow of oil into the ocean has stopped, although the well has not yet been successfully capped.

...Um, how does that work? This whole thing has been a LOLFest. I guess it's been the ultimate test though and this has proven that Government [SNIP] doesn't hold a candle to Corporate [SNIP].

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[edit on 28-5-2010 by TheBorg]

reply to post by PatesHatriots

Once the pressure in the bore had dropped to zero, they planned to cap the hole with concrete.

Obama said plug the hole. So apparently government is very powerful in this case as it only took one day for the leak to be stopped!

[edit on 28/5/10 by plumranch]

Originally posted by plumranch
Obama said plug the hole. So apparently government is very powerful in this case as it only took one day for the leak to be stopped!

No. It has taken nearly 40.

If indeed it has been stopped.

Your estimate of 5,000 barrels a day seems lower than many I've heard.

I might suggest you lay off the US establishments koolaid. But I doubt you will.

I myself will reserve judgement until I see something a little more definitive. Believing politicians (people who literally lie for a living) and corporate PR men (who also literally lie for a living) isn't something I like to engage in.




[edit on 28-5-2010 by belial259]

Sorry, but I don't believe this for one second. No offense to you at all, I just can't stand all the [SNIP] ( we've been fed from the very start of this disaster. How can we possibly know if it's stopped? There is already so much oil in the water that we would have no idea if there was still an existing leak. I smell a news story designed to quiet the restless members of society.

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[edit on 28-5-2010 by TheBorg]

From what I see on the live feed on CNN, there's still a flow of brownish gunk coming out. Live Feed

Also, BP shut off the mud project Wednesday night and resumed it Thursday evening. Article


I think the OP article may be a little out-dated (dated : 15:25 27 May 2010), so yesterday at 3:25pm??if my math is correct,, but if the leak has really stopped, then halleluja!!!!!!

Edit - BP also said it may take a few days until we can be 100% accurate that the mud project has worked.

[edit on 28-5-2010 by buni11687]

[edit on 28-5-2010 by buni11687]

The .gov is now saying it's between 12,000-19,000 bpd.

I've been saying that it could be 60,000, based on the historical example of the Ixtoc I, which had a roughly 10" pipe compared to Horizons 20" pipe, and spewed 30,000 bpd (estimate).

But today I read data explained that the bend in the riser pipe, and the drill pipe lodged inside the well, combined make up for about a 40% decrease.

And then the 'wildcard' for how much actual oil is involved is that 40-50% of the material spewing is actually natural gas.


[edit on 28-5-2010 by IgnoranceIsntBlisss]

I thought they had fixed this? Looks worse to me Or is that mud? Took this from the live feed a few mins ago. edition.cnn.com...

Screenshot captured right now from BP's live feed:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/051bf0c01754.jpg[/atsimg]

Yep they've stopped the oil flow alright. Only you've got even more of their so-called toxic 'mud' gushing out instead. Way to spin a story to the media to make things sound good. This spill is far from plugged. It's getting worse by the day!

I wont believe a word of it for another two days.. remember this morning the good ADM said it was stopped.. and he was wrong.

In order to push back the oil, with an 'open' 'top', they have to use far more pressure than the well is pushing up at it. Perhaps the mud is toxic, but would you prefer the oil to still be gushing?

Im kind of inclined to believe the CNN video may be on a loop. For some reason, I cant watch the BP websites live feed, the video is just all black. I took a pic of live feeds off of Huffington post and the video says "recording failure" with the leak in a still image in the background.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/45cb2e63e055.jpg[/atsimg]

This is not even the main leak they are showing us, I think.

These [SNIP] are lying! yeah the oil is not flowing out the mud they pumped in is. Soon as it is done the oil resumes coming out! These idiots just did this so they could say they stopped the oil, so for how long a few hours a day or two maybe?

[SNIP] criminals should be hanged. And even if they do manage to stop it you can bet they will be drilling another side shaft to get the oil. These thugs don't give a damn about us or the environment they would kill us all in a heart beat if they thought they could make a buck off it...Sigh! #$%^@(*& +()(+



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[edit on 29-5-2010 by burdman30ott6]

BP should be splitted.
part becomes property of us, part of the british government. bp top managment goes to jail, and can avoid it only by paying everything they got to
the damaged states.
this should scare the hell out of everybody who's gonna take environment respect and people's life lightly.

It seems as if something is still pouring out at quite a good rate. If it is oil, then they are lying. If it is "mud" then they are still lying.

Q: What is drilling mud, anyway?

A: Fluid pumped into a drill hole to cool and clean the drill, stabilize the hole and also help bottle up oil and natural gas escaping from a geologic formation. Typically, offshore rigs use a "mud" made by combining a synthetic petroleum with clays to create a high-viscosity fluid about twice as dense as water that is sometimes compared to chocolate milk in looks. The "mud" is carefully engineered to be heavier than than the crude oil in the well, but not so dense that it gums up drilling operations.

source< br />
Not sounding so wholesome and organic so far.

After the NYSE closes today, they will probably release news saying they may have stopped most of the oil flow, but the pressure isn't going down and the well is still releasing tons of methane. Eventually when the mud runs out, the oil will flow again.

Early Monday morning before the markets open they will announce their solution to keep pumping mud and junk in until they can complete the relief wells in August.

I think this news is tied to investors and the value of BP's stock. They are more worried about their stock than telling the truth.

Not to minimize this catastrophe nor to lessen BP's poor handling of the matter but people seem to be looking at this overly simplistically. People seem to think that all you have to do is slap a cork in it and all will be OK. Maybe you are part of the camp that believes that BP et al sis this on purpose and WANT the leak to continue. I don't believe it. This to me is a clear-cut case of a corporate screw-up fueled by greed and arrogance. If you watched the 60 Minutes interview with the platform worker who was THERE when it happened he spells out exact what BP did that resulted in the explosion and resulting catastrophe. We was in the meetings where the decisions were made and procedures short cutted.

Dozens of posters watching the live feed have pointed out that what you are now seeing leaking out is, in fact, the mud they are pumping in. But for some reason people just skip over that information. Will it work? Let's hope.

Why did they not do something right away? Why has it taken so long? This is an amazingly complicated engineering challenge. You can be sure there have been countless heated meetings of engineers, geologists, etc. both within BP and the gov't hashing out approaches. The process they undoubtedly followed was to assess the risk and potential of every engineering approach. The LAST thing they want to do is to try something that could damage or destroy the BOP and take additional viable options away. The 'Top Kill' process is risky. It could fracture the wellhead. If that happens the leak will become dramatically worse and there will be precious few options left of how to deal with it.

So what they have been doing is trying approaches starting with the least risky first to get it stopped. I read the posts of 'nuke it' or 'just blow it up'. Based on what? Because sitting there at your computer YOU think it will work? It takes a great deal of time to get the specialized equipment on-site, procedures worked-out, contingencies analyzed, etc. before you can even begin something. Yes, it's frustrating and infuriating to hear BP's lies and see the damage being wrought on the Gulf. But I sincerely believe that the engineers working on this are doing everything possible to get it stopped --- despite BP's incompetency.

So I would ask people to take a deep breath and think before you post pronouncements about a process none of us is qualified to critique. Let's hope the people working to stop it succeed, that the people working to clean it up are successful and that BP is held fully aco#able.

Originally posted by IgnoranceIsntBlisss
In order to push back the oil, with an 'open' 'top', they have to use far more pressure than the well is pushing up at it. Perhaps the mud is toxic, but would you prefer the oil to still be gushing?

Thats the funny bit, environmentally the mud is no better than the oil, hell, its got some oil in it! BUT! We stopped losing Oil! Yay! BP saved their profits, we can all rest easy now. This has secured us fossil fuels for the next 10 years.

EMM