The "Up to the Minute" BP Livefeed Discussion Thread

We certainly have an on again, off again situation here. I will be watching and waiting.

I'm watching the chat and somebody on there who gives the impression of being involved in the operation says they'll be monitoring the pressure through transducers but it won't show on the gauges in the live ROV feeds.

Is this the Yellow Box that's going to save the world?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/f208d59b693d.jpg[/atsimg]

Eeeeeeeeeeeee ! That looks like it was assembled a bit hastily....

I wonder about the relief wells that are being drilled. I have heard that the existing technology could not handle the pressure. Are they applying the same technology in two more zones of high pressure? What did someone say about repeating the same experiment expecting different results? I guess it's okay to try it if that is their best chance to mollify this catastrophe.

reply to post by LookingIn


It is starting to look like the mechanics and engineers are not very trusting of the ROV operators to know what they are doing without, um, EXPLICIT instructions. I am sure everyone is very tired out there on those ships as well.

Currently watching Enterprise - ROV 2, looks like its leaking where it wasn't leaking from last night:

Originally posted by StarTraveller
Currently watching Enterprise - ROV 2, looks like its leaking where it wasn't leaking from last night:

Yea I was looking at that as well, but I don't think that is oil coming out of that thing. Oil usuall rises up wheras that stuff is falling down. So I think it must be some sort of mud mix or something. TBH I don't know where that piece of equipment is in the scheme of things or even what it is.

Originally posted by dreamwalker74
reply to post by twentythreedom

 

Ok, I agree that is crazy, 27 feet tall weighing 72 tons, really? that means from the base up the thing weighs 5,333 pounds per linear foot. What the hell did they make this out of?

it's gonna be solid steel, and lts of it - this thing will be a few metres in diameter, inches-thick plate, valves, taps, etc etc.. i think it is a fair figure

New info on today's activities, article found here.

With the stack in position, the next step is to connect up the hydraulics, so that the power can be applied to the rams and that they will close the flow. This is some of what is going on with the array of other ROVs whose operations are now available for monitoring. Prior to that I suspect that they will, Monday evening, check the flow of oil through the kill line to the Helix Producer, to ensure that it can handle the flow, and that this will occur concurrent with the flow to the Q4000. Once those numbers have been confirmed, and the flow conditions validated, the shear rams will be closed. I would suspect that this will happen first, since it will increase the pressure in the well somewhat, as the flow path out is restricted to the kill and choke circuits. Then, after checking to ensure that the well is retaining its integrity – no leaks into the surrounding rock through the casing or any other of the horrific disasters that have floated through comments over the past few weeks – the flow to the choke and kill will slowly be closed. As they are closed the pressure in the well will continue to be monitored, together with the flow out of the two lines. (Having now read the full transcript I note that BP are going to do it the other way around, closing the rams last instead of first. Well I think it might be more logical to do it the other way, but they know more about the relative benefits of the choice than I). If the pressure continues to rise (indicating no leaks) as the flow trails to zero, then the well will have been shut-in. The flow will have stopped, and a test will be run, for a planned 48 hours to ensure that all the seals are holding. At that time I expect that the choke and kill lines may re-open, but without there being some unforeseen incident, I do not expect the rams to re-open. Once the well stops pumping out oil into the Gulf, the political difficulties in restarting that flow un-necessarily are considerable. And if there is a problem then in addition to the choke and kill lines the riser to the Enterprise can be re-connected, and take 15,000 bd up the pipe, for a total system capacity of around 50,000 bd without letting any more oil out into the water. If the current tests are successful, then the risks of additional leakage into the Gulf during a Hurricane are also going to be greatly reduced, and the pressure on the relief well becomes a little less.

So, to head off any reports that oil is not leaking now, they expect that to happen as they test the closing of the rams, and it could be that way for up to 48 hours. Just be calm, cool, and collected and then wait and see.

I was thinking (and sometimes that gets me into trouble)...

the old BOP is still leaning, right? like this /

or have they fixed that lean? if not, then they are putting all that weight on a leaning old BOP?

huh what?

Originally posted by berkeleygal
I was thinking (and sometimes that gets me into trouble)...

the old BOP is still leaning, right? like this /

or have they fixed that lean? if not, then they are putting all that weight on a leaning old BOP?

huh what?

The old BOP never was leaning. The leaning people kept talking about was after the flex joint on the top of the BOP. People kept seeing the top bounce around and they thought that the entire BOP was moving around/leaning.

She's spewing again. Lots of it.

Is that dispersant coming from beneath? It's been on weather or not there is oil.

Re: "leaking where it was not leaking last night"

One of the guys in the chat said they were intentionally flushing something out. Also comment about the camera being upside down but not sure if that was serious.

Originally posted by ttatw
Re: "leaking where it was not leaking last night"

One of the guys in the chat said they were intentionally flushing something out. Also comment about the camera being upside down but not sure if that was serious.

lol thats the first thing my son and I did, look at it upside down, think its the 'flushing' of something though. Never thought of that

reply to post by Mr Tranny


I thought BP admitted it was leaning? Am I incorrect in that?

The BOP is leaning, as BP has admitted. AND, the flex joint was bouncing around, but the majority of the bounce people saw was the cap see-sawing back and forth and the ROV's jigging round while attached to the BOP. People thought that movement was the BOP moving. The BOP is still leaning, but only by a few degrees and so far doesn't seem to have been affected by the weight of this new stack.

That said, the ROV operators need to keep track of their umbilicals so that they will stop wrapping them around things.

I'm with bigyin above.

Can anyone explain what this thing does in the grand scheme of things?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/cb5e33a22789.jpg[/atsimg]

Originally posted by LookingIn
Is this the Yellow Box that's going to save the world?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/f208d59b693d.jpg[/atsimg]

Eeeeeeeeeeeee ! That looks like it was assembled a bit hastily....

Ha, that's brilliant. It's just the engineers making sure they don't turn the valve the wrong way this time... remember what happened last time? Repeat after me.... righty tighty, lefty loosey.

[edit on 13-7-2010 by eightfold]

Originally posted by LookingIn
I'm with bigyin above.

Can anyone explain what this thing does in the grand scheme of things?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/cb5e33a22789.jpg[/atsimg]

Thats the base of the BOP itself on the riser I am guessing

Originally posted by eightfold

Originally posted by LookingIn
Is this the Yellow Box that's going to save the world?

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/f208d59b693d.jpg[/atsimg]

Eeeeeeeeeeeee ! That looks like it was assembled a bit hastily....

Ha, that's brilliant. It's just the engineers making sure they don't turn the valve the wrong way this time... remember what happened last time?

Repeat after me.... righty tighty, lefty loosey.

[edit on 13-7-2010 by eightfold]

So why did they place the word "Choke" on it as if they don't know what it is? Not once but several times?

I say PR move. You can't take over BP now. Look we are so close.