The Special "TOP HAT" Cover on Top of the BOP has Apparently Blown Off!

CP mat it is! Thank the gods that it isn't explosives. Good job finding that info for us!

This makes me think that the riser assembly that people are saying is going to be put in must be something that lies on the seafloor and this mattress will weight it down. Why would they be putting a horizontal riser in, and where will be it connected to the BOP is my question.

I was trying to visualize a vertical riser being put in when I read about it earlier, and couldn't imagine how they would even get it to seat on the top of the BOP, and then how would they get it to connect, or stay there. Horizontal makes more sense, but again, where and how?

reply to post by Moriarty

I think the mats are either to enhance the longevity of any pipeline they have in place, or as part of a retrofit repair to a damaged section.

Please forgive me for disagreeing but I doubt that these mats would be very helpful if the BOP falls on them because the BOP already damaged and hardly worth saving, it weighs about 400 tons and would mash anything under it, and also if it falls over they won't have any way to pipe oil from the leak anyway.

They'd likely have to write off any hopes of salvaging the well if the BOP hits the deck.

Originally posted by JustMike
reply to post by Moriarty

 

They look like lead weights. Ingots of lead, all linked together.

And I concur that this ROV has its depth indicator set to metres rather than feet. It's a European-based ship (home port Santa Cruz, Spain) and is managed by Taubåtkompaniet AS (Trondheim, Norway), and so having a metre gauge makes sense as that's what the crew would be used to.

Sources for ship info and managing company info.

Are you saying this accounts for the difference in the depth reading over the last few days?

Mike

reply to post by GATruthseeker

No, not at all. The differences in depth readings that have been noted from screen shots were comparing like with like: they were in feet.

One metre is more than a yard. To be more precise, a metre is 39.37 inches. So if you're watching an ROV that's displaying depth in metres and you want a very rough idea of what that is in feet, just think of it in yards and convert that to feet then add on few percent more.

Even so, it's not hard to accurately convert metres to feet using online conversion pages, so if necessary we can use converted metre readings for comparison as well. For example right now BOA ROV 2 is working at 1527.7 metres. That's 5012 feet (plus 1.66 inches but never mind..)

Online conversion here

By the way, please post your response to a quoted post after the end quote mark -- the one like this (/quote) but with square brackets. Otherwise it gets posted inside the original quote and that can get pretty confusing in some cases.

Mike


[edit on 26/6/10 by JustMike]

Just wanted to note that Skandi ROV 1 was on the surface for a while -- most likely for some routine maintenance. It is now on its way back down.

Let's see what it will be doing this time.

Anyone know what Boa ROV 2 is doing??

reply to post by dragonridr


This information would probably pertain to the new members on here, it is probably very old news to the others, lol.
It can be found on bp.com

Are you all ready for this tid bit of information?

BP calls the orange stuff spewing out of the well "orange pancakes and streamers".

I did a search by typing in "orange pancakes from oil spill" and was given quite a few results. I didn't search every result offered, only a few and didn't come up with anything. My computer is going through and adjustment and wasn't cooperating very well for me, so I couldn't search a few of the other places.

I did however find many interesting things at bp.com.

After listening to Kent Wells, BP's Senior Vice President of exploration and production, I have a better understanding of a few things. (An audio of his latest update 18 June, 2010.The audio was also made into a transcript and also a slide pack.)
Maybe there is a faster way to get to Kent Wells latest updates but for now I can offer these steps.

BP.com
Gulf of Mexico Response
Response in detail
Kent Wells technical updates

This update being June 18th, Mr. Wells wasn't figuring on a possible hurricane this early it seems.

He also mentions although they are ahead of schedule at this time, with the first of two relief wells, they will be slowing down the pace.
As he explained, the bottom kill is a slow process of "ranging", then slowly drilling a couple of hundred feet at a time, then testing.
Then again ranging, slowly drilling a couple of hundred feet, then testing again. Ultimately ending up right beside the well before drilling into it.

I also came across two interesting maps, one of which graphs the "orange pancakes and streamers", along with other types of colored oil, tar, ect.
That map was titled "Deepwater Horizon (MC-252)-Situation Status Map 6/26/2010."
The other map named "Deepwater Horizon/BP Daily Oil Impact Assessment Day".

I am quite surprised to see so much information on there. One thing leads you to another and another.

I hope Kent Wells isn't just blowing hot air, he seems to have a plan and it seems to be happening but of course not fast enough!

I do hope his word means something to him. Out of any of the top BP officials, he is the only one who seems to be doing something. Maybe not as we would want and need him to do but at least he is giving us ......something.

On a side note: Doesn't it look like a man has been hung from a tree there at the bop? Which of the insane *blips* is he?

Looking at the feed again this morning and I have come to the conclusion that the orange/yellow plume was/is almost definitely the lighting.

Currently there are two different live feeds of the plume one that is lit up and orange and the other obviously not lit up and black.

NOW just to clarify here I am NOT saying the plume is in reality black. I'm just saying that light being pointed at the plume is obviously allowing its "true" color to come out. Ive read that at those depths most all vibrant colors disappear completely or are nullified into very dark contrast versions of the "true" color.

So an unlit version of the plume is essentially altered by the lack of light to reflect off the plume and display its true nature. So it still very well could be sulfur spewing out. If the plume were at the surface it would appear orange as it does when the RoV shines light on it.

Also most of the oil on the surface I have seen has a distinct orange tint to it which proves this.

Does anyone know if BP has a Live Feed of the BOP and CAP that remains in place and broadcasting in the event storms disrupt the oil-siphoning and the area is evacuated by ships operating the ROVs? Will any source of monitoring and public broadcasting remain?

Storm threatens to disrupt BP oil-siphoning

HOUSTON (Reuters) – With a storm threatening to disrupt oil-siphoning efforts at BP Plc's blown-out Gulf of Mexico well, the U.S. Coast Guard on Friday said collection efforts would be suspended five days before the forecast onset of gale-force winds.

Regardless of whether this system enters the oil spill region, odds are that A system will come near enough to trigger this evacuation protocol and take public observational tools like live feeds away with them.

Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the U.S. government's point man on the oil spill, said it would be necessary five days before gale force winds are forecast to arrive to take down operations involving ships and other equipment siphoning some of the oil spewing from BP's ruptured deep-sea well. During this period, the oil could flow unchecked from the ruptured well into the sea for up to 14 days, Allen said. The U.S. National Weather Service defines gale force winds as 39 mph to 54 mph. When referring to gale force winds, Allen mentioned "about 40 knots," which is 46 mph. "Our threshold to begin taking action is 120 hours before gale force winds are forecasted," Allen said. Two oil-capture systems siphon oil from the leak to a drillship and a service rig a mile above the well at the water's surface. Both use fixed pipes that require days to disconnect and allow the vessels to move out of the path of a storm, officials have said.

Edit: Fixed link


[edit on 26-6-2010 by DancedWithWolves]

Watching the live feeds right now and Ent 1 ROV is showing one side of the top hat and there is hardly any oil coming out of it. When you look at Skandi 2, there is more coming out of that side. All other operating ROV's are working on something at the same time in another area. I am thinking we will see the failure of the top hat in days, at the most, possibly hours now. It just has no real seal with the amount of leaning it is doing.

Holy Crap! I hope someone is recording right now. I'm watching Discoverer & a huge glob of gunk is all over the top hat - looks like they are trying to blow it away.

Definitely doing something on Enterprise Rov 1 and it ain't pretty.

Looks like they are either trying to clean it or break it again.

M.

reply to post by Moshpet


This definitely would explain how it got messed up the first time.


_______________________________________________________

I can't see how in the world this thing is containing anything. Is the oil being collected by those tiny tubes going up?

It seriously does not look like it's controlled at the moment. To me it is looking much worse than when they reinstalled the hat a few days ago. I suspect they'll announce another Rov error or pull it up again soon.

M.

Morning all,

some good comments and queries.

One I'll answer right now, namely if there is a major storm in the GOM region, will we still get live feeds?

Probably not. The feeds are coming from the cameras on the ROVs that are hard-wired via their "umbilical chords" to their designated ships. So if the ships have to pull out they'll likely take the ROVs with them.

I have just shot about eight minutes of video off my laptop, and using the mouse as a pointer I've done some commentary on what is going on and referenced it to a technical drawing of the BOP.

As it's the middle of the night in the region there a lot of you might otherwise miss what's happening. It's very busy there now and this is the best way I can think of to keep you informed.

I'll go and process the video and get it uploaded to ATS then post it.

Okay I'll be back in about ten minutes to post the video link.

Mike

[edit on 27/6/10 by JustMike]

It has certainly been interesting for the last few hours.

reply to post by GATruthseeker

I'll say... Okay, here's some video with my commentary that I shot around 2:45 am (Gulf region time). Running time is around 7 min 45 sec. Turn down the sound a bit!

LINK to video on ATS

The video shows what Enterpise ROV 1 and 2 are doing around the top of the BOP at this time, as well as Skandi ROV 2. I use the mouse to point out a few features and reference them to a technical drawing of the BOP. This could help some members understand what they are looking at and what the scale is.

To get a pdf copy of the BOP technical drawing, go HERE.

The same site has a color pdf schematic drawing which shows how the LMRP Cap containment system is supposed to work. You can find it HERE.

Arounf the 5-minute mark of the video where I mention "Rover 3", I am referring to the Skandi ROV in relation to the other two ROVs in the same area. (No ROVs actually have the designation "3".) I called them "rovers" but they should be called "ROVs". Sorry about that. Was on first java of the morning.

At the end where I say "...I hope it all goes well," I mean that I hope whatever they are trying to do right now goes well. We all know that this ongoing, massive leak of oil and gas/hydrates is not going well.

EXTRA EDIT: where I refer to the "golden pancakes and streamers" that SweetLiberty posted about, please don't take my tone to imply that I'm making fun of SweetLiberty. Far from it; SweetLiberty's post is great information and very much appreciated. I just find BP's terminology "funny-peculiar".

I mentioned the "golden pancakes and streamers" in reference to previous discussions about the color of the leak as seen by Skandi ROV 2, and wanted to confirm that (in my opinion), the "golden" color seen through that ROV's feed is likely due to poor contrast/color balance of the camera or its related image processing software. The other cameras seem more like "true color" images.

In other words, what I say in the video is not to deny the veracity of the information in SweetLiberty's post, it is just to make sure we don't confuse Skandi ROV 2's image feed as being definitive of anything we see in regards to colors.
END of EXTRA EDIT

If anyone knows how to embed this video in the thread, could you please do so? I tried to work it out but had no success.

I'll be away out of town until some time on Tuesday and likely with no chance to check on ATS. Thank you all in advance for your input and updates.

Best regards,

Mike

[edit on 27/6/10 by JustMike]

Brilliant post Mike... Very informative.
Thanks for putting it together.

reply to post by ckitch

Thanks for your supportive comments. Being so far from the actual disaster scene this is about all I can do -- watch and keep record while many others need to sleep. I feel pretty helpless in all this.

Poor quality as it admittedly is, at least this video gives us some evidence of time frame for those two Enterprise ROV feeds that display no data whatsoever. Hopefully that might be useful for any future discussion of this disaster.

Okay, I really must get going. Be back on Tuesday. Sincerely hoping that nothing worse has happened by then.

Mike

reply to post by JustMike


Fabulous post Mike! I have been meaning to go back and look at a good diagram but I haven't had the chance. It really helps that you went back & forth from the diagram to the video.

I have been looking at these feeds for so long that I definitely feel like I have a pretty good understanding of what it looks like but I was having trouble really getting the scale of the whole BOP.

Like I said, I have been watching the feeds on & off for several hours now & something has definitely changed. I haven't seen any camera angle that highlighted the tilt lately. The major thing that I noticed is that the flow & whatever substances are escaping seem to have changed dramatically.

A few hours ago, they seemed to be very concerned with the top hat. They got close to it & I guess used the same blower we saw them using last night. It seemed to be blowing away huge chunks of what looked like sand/powder that were surrounding the wires/cables on the top of the top hat. A couple of hours later, they were doing the same thing but it had turned into something that resembled the "tar baby". I didn't see it but saw someone else commented that it looked like a solid & "just floated away" - the stuff I was seeing before that just turned to dust basically.

The next thing I noticed was that the flow seemed extremely volatile & seemed to contain a great deal of debris and/or bubbles. It is hard to tell but it definitely seemed like small pieces of debris. They lowered some kind of metal plate with 4 holes in a row + a dial down into it. It seemed that they were checking out the composition to me. The plate around the holes & the dial got very gooey & it seemed to be growing constantly. The camera that you have been referring to as #3 had a very orange tint to the whole thing but what was coming out appeared to be very dense & very black - it was flowing kind of slowly where everything coming out above it seemed to be full of particles. After all of that, the flow seemed to be exploding out of every possible crevice. I didn't think it was going to explode but it did look like a pressure cooker in many ways.

I don't know if this account helps any but I would love to hear if anyone else noticed/had the same thoughts as I did.