The "Up to the Minute" BP Livefeed Discussion Thread

reply to post by niblo


Nah mate, Ocean Intervention ROV 2 is working roond the er side, it was what kicked up the gunk. Check it. It's trying to add stuff round the pipe. Keep an eye on JustMike, he has a great way of explaining this stuff.

Just joined a few minutes ago after being up til 4am PST monitoring all this. My feeds went pretty much black a couple of minutes back 12:45PM PST or so and I was wondering if anyone is else is having this problem. Thought the top-hat wouldn't be there when I got back up late this morning, but it was. I am still wondering how long that can last. you guys are doing a great job on sussing out what's going on. Don't know if you're right at any given point, but you have more mechanical experience than I do. I was a carpenter for 20 years and have a good deal of basic metal work knowledge as part of that, but it is very basic and I'm out my league here. Thanks for the updates and insights!

what they up to wi all the bits theyve been adding the last few hours?

Looks like theyre messing bout wi their own lego set, scary the responsibility these nutters have got, an theyre in the middle of drilling into the same spot to fix this? Surely somebody at some point thought about the obvious..

You'll know about the massive BP refinery in my town Grangemouth then wont you if your in clacks? Had another 'minor' chemical leak this week. Some lot.

reply to post by ghostpigeon


Check out pages 22 / 23 / 24 and you will get the picture.

reply to post by niblo


just like I said to ghostpigeon, check oot the last few pages and ye'll get the jist.

Doesnae surprise me tae hear that happened at Grangemouth. Been a few things happnin er there of late.

reply to post by Thistled


Thanks Niblo, I'm backtracking now for a while to check those out. My feeds blanking out are mostly a browser problem, BTW, and I'm just shutting down and reloading it periodically. It kind of freaks me out when one or another screen goes out - I have a multiple screen feed site i'm tracking. I'll be back.

Just re-read them pages, that pic of the BOP really puts it into perspective. The size of the crane thats needed to shift it man..

You think theyre gonny do a bit of chopping or welding then? I canny figure out why theyre putting the attached cables into the sockets on that control surface or whatever it is, the gauges arent even moving yet

Originally posted by ghostpigeon
My feeds blanking out are mostly a browser problem,

No, they are here as well, 2 PC's / 2 browsers / 2 video viewers; others have noted it also.

Reply to all.

The break in feeds is because of high winds and rough seas. Difficult (not impossible) to keep an accurate line of site with satellites in such weather. Hence the breaks. [edit] also, it's Friday and getting late in the day in the US, so more and more people will be logging into the feed, which won't help bandwidth I'd imagine. [edit]

Some fantastic technology is being used in order to get these pics to us all.

Aye Niblo, am leaning towards the diamond cutters maself like. Chop the top off and put a new cap on which will fit more securely and get mare oil.
Am no an engineer, but av been watchin aw day and a hink that's what their up tae.

As for the control panel thingy, a hink that's connected to the BOP, but av no idea what all the fancy pins and guages are about. It could be the control pod that BP's Kent Wells was talking about. A hink he said it was buggered, but whatever is plugged intae it, must be of use somehow. Am guessing but.

Ocean Intervention ROV 2 is doing some great work going back and forward with bits from it's toolbox.

Time tae crack open a bud. (Well it's Saturday night in Scotland just now)



[edit on 2/7/2010 by Thistled]

[edit on 2/7/2010 by Thistled]

I believe that Ocean Intervention III - ROV2 is working on connecting electrodes to the BOP so that the relief well can see the pipe??

www.bp.com...

lol its friday night in ma scotland thistled. Any night'll do for crackin open a wee beer though.

is the diamond cutter what they used for cuttin the pipe when it was leakin at a few points over a mile or something?

Got too much happening an im on the slow computer so intervention is basically frozen and i canny keep up wi what its up to.

My first thoughts when I seen them cables getting put into the sockets in a line like that my first thought was 'controlled explosion' lol. I ken they wouldny be that daft so its makin me wonder even more what its for

reply to post by Thistled

Just want to thank you for your kind comments. Most of what I know I've either picked up lately (if it's newer technology I don't know much about), or just what I learned years ago. However I'm not an engineer so I bow to those who are and who know their onions.

For anyone coming in now, one reason the cap on top of the BOP is jumping and bumping around so much is pure and simply: turbulence. Even if the oil/gas/hydrates were gushing out at an even rate and even if the cap was sitting dead level, there'd be turbulence. However, as the gushing could be varying somewhat and the cap's not even level, this increases the turbulence effects.

Turbulence is chaotic to some degree. You might have noticed that when a stream is flowing over rocks, for example, even if the water's flow is the same, you get some variation in the splashing and gurgling of the water. That's due to the chaotic nature of the system. It's the "butterfly" effect: very small changes can have a knock-on effect that is far greater than the original effect.

Now, back to that stream. If you now have a log that's floated down the stream and it's jammed against something, it gets pushed this way and that and the turbulence around it is much more irregular. The thing gets submerged then pops up again and so on. (It one reason why it's so hard to rescue people in flood waters. The system is changing so quickly and so unpredictably that it's hard to grab them.)

Once the log gets waterlogged and sinks, then the variations are reduced and the turbulence decreases. Ditto if the log gets really jammed so it simply can't move any more.

This cap on the BOP is analogous to the log caught in the stream. The system is poorly balanced and unpredictable to some degree.

What this means in simple terms is that sometimes there'll suddenly be regions of even more uneven pressure inside the cap than is "typical" for it. When this happens the thing gets pushed up more than its average and whoosh! -- out comes a big gush of oil and stuff. Then it settles down again until next time, just like the log stuck in the stream.

The less variation you have in a system like this, the less problems you get with turbulence and its rather unpredictable but possibly damaging effects. Besides which, you can't run efficient catchment with a cap that's bouncing around all over the place and won't even seal -- and they know it. They also know it's more likely to fail because of the uneven forces acting on it. So, having a cap that's secure and level will help a great deal. The pressures will be better balanced, strains on the cap will be far more even, and so it'll work better and be far less likely to fail. It'll also be much easier to monitor to see if it's likely to fail for some reason.

I'd say that's what they're working on now: setting things up so they can fit a new cap and try and reduce the chaos in the system.

Regards and I'll be back a bit later (time to eat dinner),

Mike

reply to post by niblo


Hahahahaha!

Yer right, it is Friday. Ma other half was off work the day, so av been treating it like a Saturday. lol.

Aye they used the diamond cutter to shear off the riser pipe. Me thinks it will make an appearance in the next 24hrs like.


[edit on 2/7/2010 by Thistled]

Originally posted by Morpheas
I believe that Ocean Intervention III - ROV2 is working on connecting electrodes to the BOP so that the relief well can see the pipe??

www.bp.com...

Perfect, cheers Morpheas! So put in the electrodes (from that control panel thingy, and then the relief drill sensor thing will be able to see the BOP?

Looks like they are moving into the final phase of completing the relief well. Well done (and I know they are not there yet), they have done it a month earlier than anticipated.

In saying that, they aint there yet.

C'mon boots n coots!

Hey thanks for the patient explaining and direction thistled and i'm sorry I thought my previous reply was to niblo and not you. I'm kind of caught up now and I figured some of the feed problem might have been the storm before. Good to have it confirmed. The "dry" picture really puts it in perspective. Following this has been non-stop education. I have a weird "dual hat" of having 20 years as a tradesman (construction/carpentry), back to school for 9 and now teaching US and ethnic histories at califronia state universities and community colleges. Nothing in it particularly gave me a lot of experience to add on this thread.

Politics, labor history - I can add there, but it's frustrating just being a total voyeur on this stuff. I do have tremendous respect for the workers out there on this job, and sympathy too.

if you need a break from "top hat mezmeria" here's a youtube from tom robinson that salutes our oilrig workers: riggin it up duncannon. I'll post the lyrics below cause its a dismal sound quality. It's one thing I can add:

www.youtube.com...

Rigging It Up, Duncannon

My name's Duncannon and I used to deal
As a radar rigger on the Forties field
But in my face you'll see the scar
Of the petrodollar and the German car

Oh, no no - Rigging it up Duncannon
Oh, no no - Rigging it up tonight

Worked on a pipeline pumping crude
And lived with the shiftwork, gales and food
But the greatest danger, near or far
Were the boardroom barons with a German car

Oh, no no - Rigging it up Duncannon
Oh, no no - Rigging it up tonight

They'd save on safety maintenance
They were mean and underhand
They'd maximise their bottom lines
In shelter on the land...

It was 0300 on the brig
When the nightmare happened on our sister rig
I can see the fireball in my dreams
As the dot disappeared from the radar screens

Oh, no no - Rigging it up Duncannon
Oh, no no - Rigging it up tonight

They sent for their insurance men
They sent for Red Adair
They sent the rescue services
To the rig that wasn't there...

You whizzkid cowboys of the range
As you make your killing on the Stock Exchange
Remember the men you pressed too far
For the petrodollar and a German car

Oh, no no - Rigging it up Duncannon
Oh, no no - Rigging it up tonight

From 1992 album "Living in a Boom Time"

LOL.. I've been watching Ocean Intervention III - ROV2 and the other ROV is in the way.. he/she has been trying to figure out what to do. Maybe time to call the operator of the other ROV?

www.bp.com...

Ah.. he/she was able to reach under the other ROV.. but barely.

I understand now. These greens things have nowt to do with diamond cutters, but are what will send the magnetic pulse all the way round the drill / well pipe. They send a pulse through the pipe, and then the relief drill can detect the whereabouts.

Yay, it falls into place now. Many thanks Morpheus.
I'm kinda keeping my eye on the feeds and ATS, so missing out on other bits.

The jigsaw is finally coming together now.

There was me thinking the riser section of the BOP was about to be removed.

Sorry folks! I got it wrong.

Well that looks like it is the last electrode! Now what?

reply to post by Morpheas


hey Morpheus, are you "sexing" the ROV or the operator?

Hope they don''t take time off for procreating, or maybe I do!
Anyone know what the yellow box on (damn forget the ROV) has been dropping down. I would be really nice if BP put on a running post for what's happening there, but I guess another 50 an hour for a data inputter is too much to ask. Looks like the top is more stable to me, but maybe I'm just being optimistic. Hope not.