How the Well Was Killed

BP via BitToothEnergy
It is likely that the Macondo bore has been put on its deathbed, with virtually no likelihood of recovery. Here is the narrative of BP's static kill from Kent Wells:

...let me move to the static kill and yesterday. We did have a brief call yesterday, shortly after the injection test. The injection test was very helpful. It gave us a lot of confidence going into the static kill. We were confident we could pump into the reservoir at very little pressure above what the shut-in pressure was, and that was good.

So we did pump the static kill yesterday at five barrels per minute. We were able to watch as we pumped the mud in. We were able to watch the pressure continuously and gradually decline. We were able to watch as the – if you remember, I mentioned the word we injected for the injectivity test, base oil. We were able to watch as the base oil and then the mud actually hit the reservoir. We were able to see it pressure up, and then we were able to see that pressure come back down.

And these were all very encouraging signs. And then what we kept doing is we kept injecting it as five barrels a minute, injecting more of the oil that was in the casing and actually mud, and continued to inject it into the reservoir for a period of time to try to get – make sure we'd cleaned out all of the oil that we could out of the casing.

And so we pumped for a number of hours. And then as we got confident that we'd actually got the well into a static condition, we actually increased the rate up to 10 barrels a minute, and then ultimately 15 barrels a minute, and we did that to give ourselves confidence that, if we chose to go ahead with the cementing procedure, that we could actually pump at higher rates, because that will give us a more effective cement job. And so that went well, as well.

So we spent some extra time yesterday pumping more fluid in, just to give ourselves more information and confidence. So by the end of the whole process, we had injected about 2,300 barrels of mud, and a lot of that was actually designed at just cleaning out the casing and making sure that we could move forward with the cement job with confidence, if we choose to do so.

So that's where we stand at the moment. The science teams and our teams are conversing about all the different options we have, different methods that we could use to do the best approach to – how to move forward with this well, considering cementing it from the top, looking at the relief well, cementing it from there, and we should make a decision, hopefully later today on that, and move forward with the best possible plan. _BP.com PDF

It reads almost as an anti-climax. But when the well is really and truly killed by concrete above and below, and signs of oil are nowhere to be found above or below the surface, onshore or offshore -- the hysteria will still be found in newsrooms, courtrooms, academic meetings and classrooms, in congressional committee rooms, and anywhere else that people of limited practical skills and competencies meet to make other people's lives less productive and more miserable.

Meanwhile, the necessity for offshore drilling continues to grow, as the billions in China and India set their minds upon greater personal wealth and consumption.

Just as BP seems to have killed the Macondo well, Obama has killed the oil industry in the Gulf of Mexico with his absurd and arbitrary moratorium, at least for now. Once the oil rigs are called away to work on other projects it could be years before they return. Whether Obama's economic destructiveness is based upon ideology or whether it is simple ineptitude, the suffering of the unemployed and their families will be as great.

The World's Biggest Manmade Oil Spill By Far

Take a good look at the graph above. It shows average annual oil spills into the ocean in thousands of metric tonnes. Nature spills more oil than man, but of all manmade oil spills, the greatest by far is the oil that leaks onto the highway or is intentionally poured out, which is carried downstream by rainfall, down to the sea. Consumption spills and leaks amount to almost 500,000 metric tonnes a year, which is about 3.5 million barrels a year, or roughly 150 million gallons a year of oil.

You can see that the 1979 Ixtoc 1 spill off the Mexican coast into the Gulf of Mexico spilled roughly the same amount of oil over 10 months as humans spill from ordinary activities every single year, 3.5 million barrels or about 150 million gallons. (The black bar indicates Al Fin's estimate for total net spillage from Macondo and was added to the graph's original blue -- initially compiled early in the history of the spill)

The BP TransOceanic oil spill, according to Al Fin's best estimates, spilled very close to 80 million gallons of oil (or about 2 million barrels) -- which places it around number 2 on the Gulf of Mexico list and close to 7 on the all time discrete human oil spill list. This number assumes that the spill rate was roughly 25,000 barrels per day until around the first of June, when manipulation of the riser and BOP caused the flow rate to increase to roughly 35,000 barrels per day. It also subtracts from the total any oil recovered by the LMRP cap and the "top kill manifold." The 80 million gallon number is probably still too high, given the high volatility of much of the hydrocarbon spillage -- which evaporated almost immediately into the warm air of the Gulf.

Update 3August10: The New York Times reports that "federal scientists" are reporting that the Macondo spill released 4.9 million barrels of oil, with 800,000 recovered by BP. This new figure represents an incredible windfall for government revenues, since the federal government stands to recover almost $20 billion in fines ($4,300 per barrel) plus royalties for every barrel recovered -- even if BP burned the recovered oil. "Federal scientists" must have had a lot on their minds when choosing between the vast range of flow estimates available. Now with an officially sanctioned number to quote, everyone can finally "know" the true spill quantity, right? Not exactly. There is no way the "federal scientists" can prove their number -- but they don't have to, they're the government.

The estimates of Al Fin engineers remain the same.

SourceThis chart comes from a NASA website. It is measured in millions of gallons per year, per source. NASA puts consumption spills well above natural seeps -- which is not consistent with much other oceanographic research. But it is clear that consumption spills should be considered the largest source of manmade oil spillage.

SourceThis chart from the UN places ordinary human consumption spills far above natural seeps. Offshore drilling and refinery accidents are just tiny purple and lavender slivers of the pie. This chart minimises the contribution of natural seeps, but the UN environmental organisations are controlled by the huge environmental lobbies, which often find it difficult to admit that mother nature can cause problems all on her own.
In reality, natural seeps have been occurring for over a billion years -- as long as there has been oil. Oil has probably been leaking since before life evolved, and if not oil, then at least gas. Abiotic gas is a fact of life -- present in large quantities on other planets and in interstellar space. Terrestrial abiotic oil is likely in short chain form, but is still controversial in longer chain hydrocarbons.

Source
So nature has been primed by billions of years of natural hydrocarbon spillage. Bacteria evolved to feed on hydrocarbons. Such bacteria are present in and around every oil and gas deposit on earth. Each type of bacterium specialises in a particular hydrocarbon chain length, and they operate together as an assembly line. Munching and crunching their way down the hydrocarbon chain until all that is left is CO2 and H2.

So if you want to locate the biggest manmade oil spill by far, look around your neighborhood, your home town, your county, province, state. You sir, you madame, you are the leakers, if your car is leaking oil, or if you dump used oil to dispose of it.

With that in mind, consider how displaced was all the media, government, and faux environmental hysteria over the Deepwater Horizon / Macondo oil spill. But then, that is how the media sells advertising, how government grabs ever more power, and how the faux environmentalists deceive gullible contributors into supporting their multi-billion dollar industry.

Has Oil Spill Damage Been Exaggerated?... Time Mag

Oil Spill Damage May Have Been Exaggerated... Telegraph

Oil is Rapidly Disappearing, as Crews Prepare to Kill Well

...the pressure in the well has now risen to just over 6,900 psi, while the temperature at the BOP remains at 40 deg – suggesting no flow and that well integrity is apparent. The storm has, however, dispersed and moved the oil ..._BitToothEnergy

NOLA
It is becoming almost impossible for oil cleanup crews on the Gulf of Mexico to find any oil to clean up -- both onshore and offshore. It seems that nature is a lot better at cleaning up oil in the warm waters of the Gulf than academics, plaintiff's attorneys, and political activists have been claiming. Meanwhile crews are preparing to kill the shut-in Macondo well from both the top (static kill via new sealing cap) and the bottom (bottom kill via relief well). Admiral Allen:

Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen says Monday that the so-called "static kill" -- in which mud and cement are blasted into the top of the well -- should start on Aug. 2.
If all goes well, the final stage -- in which mud and cement are blasted in from deep underground -- could begin Aug. 7.
BP has said the bottom kill could take days or weeks, depending on how well the static kill works. _al.com

For those who are still a bit uncertain about the planned "static kill", here is a Q&A to explain just what to expect.

Question: What is static kill?
Answer: The static kill is an attempt to seal the blown-out Macondo well by pumping it with mud and possibly cement. The hope is that the mud will overtake the oil and push it back down into the reservoir.
Question: Where will the mud come from and where will it go?
Answer: The mud will be fed from two ships on the water's surface to a platform called the Q4000 that will pump it into the well through the kill line of the blowout preventer.
Question: This sounds a lot like the failed "top kill." What's the difference?
Answer: It's almost identical to the "top kill" in that the idea is for the heavy mud to slowly overcome the oil. But unlike the top kill, the static kill calls for mud to be pumped at lower pressures and rates of speed.
Question: Why won't the mud be pumped at high speeds and pressures?
Answer: The higher speeds and pressures required in the top kill are unnecessary because the well is now capped. In top kill, the oil flow pushed the mud out of the top of the well. This time it has nowhere to go, unless there are unseen holes in the well beneath the surface.
Question: When will this static kill happen?
Answer: Crews will try the static kill Aug. 2.
Question: How long will it take?
Answer: The procedure will take about one day.
Question: Could this seal the well for good?
Answer: Yes. If the mud is able to push oil back down into the reservoir and it is followed with cement, the well would, in effect, be sealed shut.
Question: If the static kill works, would drilling continue on the relief well?
Answer: Yes. The relief well, which will pump mud and cement into the bottom of the Macondo well, is still considered the ultimate solution for plugging the well.
Question: Then why do the static kill?
Answer: BP and government officials believe the static kill could speed up the relief well's work. If the static kill does not shut the well, it would presumably still have pumped enough mud in to require less effort from the relief well. If it does shut the well, the relief well would still go forward to confirm that oil is no longer flowing. _NOLA

"Hurricane" Bonnie a Dud: Ships Hustle to Get Back to Work

Tropical Storm Bonnie broke up over Florida, and is now heading across the Gulf of Mexico as a tropical depression. Some of the mission-critical ships involved in drilling relief wells and in monitoring the seafloor, are hustling back to the Deepwater Horizon spill site so as to not lose any more time than is necessary. The Obama White House -- previously in full panic mode -- may now take a moment to relax and breathe deeply again.

Some ships prepared to move back to the site of BP's broken oil well Saturday as the remnants of a weakening Tropical Storm Bonnie rolled into the Gulf of Mexico.

The rough weather is still expected to hit the area directly, but the storm -- now barely a tropical depression -- broke apart as it crossed Florida and moved into the Gulf.

...The vessels relaying video images and seismic readings from undersea robots monitoring the leaky well are still in place and may be able to stay, he said.
The mechanical cap that has mostly contained the oil for eight days was left closed, and there was no worry the storm would cause problems with the plug because it's nearly a mile below the ocean's surface.

The government's spill-response team held off on any blanket order for resuming the drilling and cleanup activities.

...Work on the relief tunnel stopped Wednesday, and it will take time to restart. Crews on the drilling rig pulled up a mile of pipe in 40-to-60-foot sections and laid it on deck of the drilling rig so they could move to safer water. _al.com

The Obama Pelosi regime has already shut down oil exploration and drilling in the Gulf of Mexico -- for quite spurious reasons. Recent panic-prone behaviours by Obama government officials suggest that this US administration is simply not ready for all the responsibilities it has attempted to take on.

As well-killing operations continue to be set back by government officials and academics seemingly afraid of their own shadows, one wonders just how long it will take to kill this well -- and how long will it take the government to finally re-open the Gulf to exploration? Years? By then, there will be no Oil companies or drilling rigs willing to risk entering US waters for the purposes of oil or gas drilling -- which may be exactly what Obama Pelosi have been aiming for.

Obama's people are causing untold hardship to the people and the economy of the Gulf of Mexico by their arbitrary moratorium on exploration and drilling. The Obama administration narrowly avoided making another monumental mistake in the Gulf when it almost chose to re-open the Macondo oil spill to Gulf waters.

As incompetent as some of the decisions made by TransOceanic, BP, and Haliburton may have been (wait until the facts come out), decisions being made by the US government stand to be orders of magnitude more incompetent and destructive in the long run.

Retired Admiral In Spotlight, Obama Considers Another Vacation

BP workers in the Gulf of Mexico have stopped drilling a relief well and are preparing to evacuate the oil spill site as a tropical depression nears.

There is a 20-30% chance of tropical storm force winds (39mph or more) at the spill site by Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center says.

Because of the slow-moving vessels at the spill site, evacuation plans are already well under way.

Work on the relief well could be suspended for up to two weeks. _BBC

It is time to make critical decisions about the state of the Macondo wellhead. But decision making by government officials has been glacially slow -- part of the reason why this storm may set well-killing efforts back almost a month. The Obama administration is still considering re-opening the oil spill and allowing millions more gallons of oil to re-pollute an already healing Gulf. But where is Obama in this decision-makiing? Hiding behind the ample bulk of retired admiral Allen.

With the weather in the Gulf likely to get worse in the coming days, the oil response team has a decision to make, one that could mean letting thousands of barrels of oil gush into the gulf again. It's a decision few people envy having to make.

After the first full week of no oil getting into the Gulf from BP's blown-out well, no one wants to have to oil the Gulf on purpose.

"Leave it closed," said one local man.

"Why reopen the well and let the oil leak?" asked a woman as she commuted to work in New Orleans.

But National Incident Commander Thad Allen's decision isn't that easy. Ever since the cap was installed one week ago, they've had to monitor it day by day to make sure nothing happens that could potentially make the disaster even more disastrous. But tropical weather could mean two weeks of no one on the scene to do anything. It's a decision no one wants to make. _WWL.com

Mr. Obama only takes the spotlight when he is in a position to project moral authority and to take credit for something seen to have gone well. In situations of critical decision-making, Mr. Obama tends to stall as long as possible, and finally to vote "present" -- placing responsibility for bad results on subordinates and predecessors.

It may not be such a bad thing that Mr. Obama takes so many vacations. I understand that Phuket is very nice, once again.

Addendum 23July2010: US Energy Secretary Steven Chu has ordered the Macondo well to remain capped and closed during the approach, passage, and aftermath of the tropical storm. All efforts to permanently kill the well will be postponed until seas calm and the working surface vessels can safely return. Meanwhile, the White House has suggested that President Obama and his family are considering a vacation to the Gulf of Mexico sometime this summer.

Oil skimming vessels are being sent to port, but have not found appreciable oil slicks for recovery in the past few days anyway. It is almost uncanny, how quickly the coastline has begun recovering, and how rapidly the oil slicks have faded, once the well was shut in.

Static Kill Animation + Marshes Begin to Recover from Spill

Along the Gulf coast skimmer boats are still trolling for oil but not finding much. After months of trying to stay ahead of the spill, there's finally a chance to step back and assess progress.

The edge of marshes in the area used to be covered in oil. There are still the black stains on the grass but a month later signs of life: green shoots on the marshes are new growth.

"That tip was almost, you can kind of see, was completely slicked over," said Laura Wyness. She's in charge of protecting the marshes around Grand Isle.

Crews don't touch the grasses, just circle them with boom to absorb the oil. She's seen the grasses go from oil-covered to growing again. It's happening all across this bay.

"For it to be growing back, even with the presence of oil there, is I think a great accomplishment for mother nature herself," said Wyness. _CBS

As you can see from the video above, the Gulf of Mexico shoreline is already recovering from the oil spill, just days after BP capped the well. Imagine how much Obama would be reviled by Gulf residents, should he force BP to re-open the oil well spill, and put the Gulf ecosystems through the disaster yet one more time!

In Kent Wells' afternoon briefing today, he clarified some questions and reiterated other points he had made previously concerning the relief well and the static kill:

...everything’s looking good and as I told you yesterday, the relief well is exactly where we want it, pointed in the right direction. So we’re feeling good about that.
Once again, just remind everybody, and then the intercept of the Macondo well is still for the end of July and then the kill procedure, dependent upon whether we have flow up the annulus casing or both, could take anywhere from a number of days to a few weeks.

In terms of the well integrity tests, the pressure continues to steadily rise. It’s now at 6834. It’s rising at less than one PSI per hour. This is what we’d expect to see. You know it’s just starting to slowly increase. It’s still very much aligned with what we were talking about in that it’s following a predicted path and so that’s all going – going well.

Our monitoring continues on in all the different aspects and at this point, we do not have any anomalies or evidence that would say we do not have integrity. Doesn’t mean we have proven we have integrity – we don’t have any evidence that says we do not have integrity and that’s why we want to continue with this testing. That’s why if you heard - listen to Admiral Allen, we think its prudent just to continue on the test in 24 hour increments. But as each day goes along, it gives us more confidence with the rising pressure and the monitoring going on.

...And then in terms of the static kill – and once again, I want to reinforce, no decisions have been made yet on proceeding forward with that. But we are continuing with preparation and planning. We continue to get equipment lined out, what we would want to do, making sure that we will have the right equipment out there to do it, writing procedures, starting to get procedures approved.

At the same time, we’re doing testes with scientists, challenging the way we’re thinking about this, what we’re doing, so we’ve got parallel paths going on that’s leading towards somewhere ideally in the next day or two that we’d be in position through unified command to make a decision whether we’d go forward with that.

And then I know, you know understanding how does this static kill work with a bottom kill from the relief well. Over the next couple days I’ll look to put together a technical video with some animation to try to demonstrate how that is. It’s not overly complicated, but it’s – I think with a little animation and some video, we can bring some clarity to it. Because I think without that it’s actually difficult to describe it. So we’ll look to do that in the next couple days if at all possible. And of course, that would be once again contingent upon its decided that’s the way to go forward and we’ll keep you informed on that. _KentWells PDF_and_audio

Wells went on to answer some questions from the press. Read the entire briefing at the PDF document linked above or listen at the audio link.

Pressure readings are above 6834 psi and rising at less than 1 psi per hour. The entire sealing cap stack was tested at 15,000 psi before installation, so BP is confident that it can contain any pressures they are likely to confront at the wellhead.

BP has declared its readiness to initiate the start of the "static kill" procedure immediately -- once given permission by Obama administration officials. Since the Gulf of Mexico is subject to bad weather this time of year, it is imperative that government officials press themselves to catch up to the learning curve, and make decisions like CEOs -- not government bureaucrats.

If Mr. Obama and his crew -- through their inaction -- create a situation where once again nearly a million gallons a day are spilled into Gulf of Mexico waters, very few Americans will fail to comprehend whose incompetence is at fault this time.

BP Considers Variant of "Top Kill" Called "Static Kill"

France24In Kent Wells' 19July evening press briefing, he announced the possibility that BP would attempt a new way to kill the well from the top called "static kill." It is called "static kill" because the well is currently shut in, with no flow. In this situation, there is no need for ultra-high speed pumping of the kill mud, as in the failed top kill. Instead, heavy mud can be pumped into the top of the shut-in well through the choke and kill lines, in a relatively leisurely manner, under close monitoring. More from Kent Wells:

In terms of the static kill. And let me talk about this because this is – people are probably going gee, we haven’t heard about this. And I think there’s good reasons. This is very much in its infancy. This is not something that we’ve approved to do. We want to have a number of sessions going through all our procedures. But let me tell you what brought this into play.

There was two things that allowed this to become a reality. First of all was the possibility the well having integrity. We needed to have that. The tests are encouraging at this point but we haven’t made a firm decision on that. But that was – that was important.

And the second piece was the fact that it had a lower reservoir pressure. That was important as well to make sure we stay underneath the – any pressure constraints we might have with the system.

And so the big difference between the static kill and of course before when we talked about the top kill, which was a dynamic kill where we had to pump at tremendously high rates to try to overcome the flow of the well. It’s a very different situation when you actually have the well shut in. We can pump at low rates, we can keep it at low pressures and do it in a very different way.

So we’re going to work through with the teams and work with the scientists and see whether this is something we can do. It clearly has some advantages in lowering the well head pressure et cetera. Maybe even to the point of the well being killed. But these are all the things that we need to work through.

Now, what I want to stress through is that at the end of the day the relief well will still be the ultimate solution. We will still drill in with the relief well to make sure that the annulus is dead, et cetera. But this static kill does give us a new option like always we like to pursue parallel options, we’d like to use an overabundance of caution and that’s what we’re doing to move forward. so I’ll put it as – it’s encouraging at this point but there’s a couple days of work to do before we’d be in a position to make a decision. _Kent Wells Briefing PDF_and_audio

Here is more about the static kill:

BP’s new idea of a static kill would involve pumping heavy mud into the well bore, to choke off the oil. A similar technique, called a top kill, was attempted in May but failed. The top kill could not overcome the force of oil flowing out of the well. But now that the cap is on, and holding, the forces involved are weaker and a static kill might work.

“The static kill does give us a new option,” Mr. Wells said. “It’s encouraging at this point but there’s a couple days of work before we’d be in a position to make a decision.”

The move, if it is tried and is successful, would effectively do the job of the close-to-ready relief well, which is now about a metre away from the original well. However, it will take until at least early August, and possibly mid-August, until the relief well is finished. Mr. Wells said the relief well remains “the ultimate solution.” _GlobeandMail

White House Panics Over Natural Oil Seep

Officials had worried that the seep — usually a flow of hydrocarbons from the seafloor — could have been evidence that oil, gas or both were escaping from the well up to the seafloor, forcing the government to order BP to remove the cap and resume oil collection.

But seeps also occur naturally, and in a briefing for reporters Monday afternoon, BP said that government and company scientists were coming to the conclusion that the seep was probably of natural origin and unrelated to the well. _NYT

Image SourceBP's Kent Wells reports that pressures at the well head continue to rise -- a good sign -- and are now above 6811 psi. But the discovery of a natural gas seep on the seafloor -- located roughly 2 miles from the Macondo well head -- almost caused the White House to order the re-start of a nearly 1 million gallons a day oil spill into the Gulf of Mexico. Just when Gulf residents had begun to hope their long nightmare was nearly over, the squirrelly Obama administration threatens to start it all up again.

Officials in the Obama administration have become so jumpy that the presence of tiny amounts of oil and gas leaking around the new sealing cap have them on the phone to BP nearly around the clock, seeking constant reassurance.

Some thoughts on all the oil spill handwringing this afternoon. The government says seeps have been spotted within two miles of the site of the blowout. So what? Does that mean it's time to be panic that oil from the Macondo well is finding a new path to the surface, and is set to burst open through the seafloor in a new, unstoppable gusher? Probably not....Natural seeps occur constantly in the Gulf of Mexico, and had been spotted around the blowout well by NOAA's science ship Thomas Jefferson long before this recent capping maneuver. The good news is that according to BP, pressure readings from the well continue to climb roughly 2 psi per hour, to 6,811 psi as of late afternoon. Climbing pressure is a good sign. If the oil were to pop a new hole in the seafloor, we would see pressure plunge. _Forbes

So it looks as if the sealing cap will remain -- despite the panic at the White House -- for at least another 24 hours.

Leaks in the valve stack atop BP Plc’s Macondo well and seepage at the base of the blowout preventer are “inconsequential,” so valves that prevent it from gushing oil will remain closed for now, National Incident Commander Thad Allen said.
Pressure inside the well is 6,811 pounds per square inch and rising, a “positive” sign that there’s no leakage that could accelerate into another gusher of oil and gas, Allen said today at a press conference in Washington.
The well will be shut “day to day,” starting with the next 24 hours, so long as BP continues monitoring the seeps of methane as directed by the government there’s no sign of significant leaks, he said.
The seeps consist of methane, or natural gas, he said. A seep found 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) away was not from the BP well, he said. _BW

President Obama was quite eager to claim credit when it looked as if the sealing cap was successfully closing off the well. But all it took were a few bubbles to shake the White House to the foundation.

From the beginning, authorities said that if the pressure hit 7,500 psi it would indicate that the well was intact. If it went below 6,000 psi, it would indicate that cracks or other damage to the well was allowing oil to escape. So far, the pressure has remained in the indeterminate range between those two numbers. On Monday afternoon it was 6,811 psi, and gradually rising a pound or so every hour, Allen said.

The fact that it's increasing slightly over time -- rather than decreasing -- is a good sign that there's not a leak, says David Rensink, incoming president of the American Association of Petroleum Engineers. _PBS

The possibility remains that the well will lose integrity before the first relief well -- now only 4 feet from the Macondo bore, horizontally -- is able to finally secure the well. If that happens, BP will be forced to resume containment efforts to surface ships such as the Q4000 and the Helix Producer. In that case, some additional oil would spill into the Gulf, during the changeover.

But can you imagine how Obama would be seen in the Gulf and the US as a whole, should he decide to re-open the oil spill into the Gulf based upon a few bubbles of methane from a natural seep? You may suppose that Obama could not appear any more inept than he already does, but he may surprise you over the next few months and years.

More: 5 Wild Technologies used to clean up Macondo spill The problem with "A Whale" may have been that the underwater dispersant used was too efficient. The surface slick was simply too skimpy for the huge supertanker--skimmer.
Causes of marine oil pollution: notice that "extraction" (such as the BP spill) represents a relatively small contributor to ocean oil contamination -- particularly compared to natural seeps and everyday rain runoff from land.

Sealing Cap Holds, Relief Wells Resume Drilling

NOAA (al.com)There is no oil leaking at the seafloor, no gas or oil being flamed at the surface since the well was shut in by the new sealing cap. Relief wells are drilling again -- the final solution to killing the well. Pressure at the Macondo well head remains steady -- slightly above the 6700 psi reported by BP yesterday. BP officials are watching pressure readings closely. If pressure begins falling, it will indicate a leak somewhere in the total well system, which would require BP to re-open the well and resume containment measures to surface vessels.

Officials have said a high pressure reading, of between 8,000 and 9,000 pounds per square inch, would indicate the well was completely intact. A reading below 6,000 pounds per square inch would show it was damaged and oil was escaping through fissures.

Saturday morning, pressure inside the well was at about 6,745 pounds per square inch, slightly above readings taken Friday, Wells said. Pressure was building at about 2 pounds per square inch per hour and has been beginning to slow, he said.

Wells said oil company engineers predicted the pressure would top out at about 6,800 pounds per square inch.

"We're feeling more comfortable that we have integrity," Wells said. "The fact that the pressure's continuing to rise and is giving us more confidence."

Pressure inside the well may be lower than initially expected because of the oil that has already leaked out, he said.

While officials are optimistic about the integrity of the well, tests may continue before they officially declare that the shut in procedure has worked, Wells said. Officials initially planned 48 hours of testing at the well, which would have concluded this afternoon.

"The test was set up to be a 48 hour test, but always with the provision that under certain circumstances it could be extended," Wells said. "It doesn't mean we need to immediately make a decision that we're going to shut in for an extended period of time." _NOLA

Kent Wells, a BP PLC vice president, said on a Saturday morning conference call there were no signs any new leaks had sprung in the well since the cap choked the flow of oil Thursday.
Wells said there has been no decision yet on whether they will reopen the cap and let oil back into the water when the test period ends later Saturday.
Wells said pressure inside the cap was slightly above the last level they announced late Friday. Rising pressure is a good sign, and falling pressure would indicate a new leak. _AP

Oil slicks have moved further offshore, although some tar balls have come ashore at some Gulf beaches and shorelines.

Tests of the giant tanker-skimmer "A Whale" have failed to show significant advantages to its use in the cleanup efforts. A number of other inventive solutions to skimming and cleaning up the oil slicks have also proven less than ideal.

As long as the oil is prevented from leaking into the Gulf of Mexico, surface cleanup can take on a more definitive shape.

After Long Delay, Government Finally OK's Oil Well Tests

For almost 2 days, the US government has withheld final permission for BP to go ahead with crucial but risky pressure testing at the Macondo wellhead. The new sealing cap has the potential to shut off oil flow -- but no one can predict how the well and wellhead will handle the high pressures. The US government has finally given BP the go-ahead, but the going will be very slow.

While conducting the pressure tests, BP will cease containment operations involving the Q4000 and the Helix Producer. It will also halt relief well drilling -- as a further precaution.

The U.S. government has given its approval for BP to temporarily close a sealing cap to shut its blown-out well and determine whether its well casing remains intact, after government officials and scientists reviewed the risk that the operation could result in further, uncontrollable leaks.

Admiral Thad Allen, the administration’s incident commander, said officials exercised “an overabundance of caution” when they delayed BP’s planned shutdown on Tuesday until the company could provide further assurances that it had minimize the risks.

“What we didn’t want to do was compound the problem by making an irreversible mistake,” he said.

Earlier Wednesday, BP vice-president Kent Wells said the company was ready to commence its crucial well-integrity test on Tuesday, but postponed it after a team of company and government scientists wanted further analysis of the risk.

“As much as we want to do things as soon as possible, we also want to make sure they are done correctly,” he said in a morning conference call Wednesday.

The company installed a tight-fitting cap on the blown-out well on Monday and had hoped to begin testing the integrity of the well on Tuesday, a process that could take 48 hours. To do so, it must slowly close valves on the 80-tone cap to stop the geyser of crude for the first time since the well erupted nearly three months ago.

Once the cap is sealed, BP and government scientists will monitor the pressure to ensure well’s cement casing has not been ruptured, which would mean crude is escaping through the space between the casing and the well wall.

If the casing is intact, the company expects to be able to shut in the well until it can complete the drilling of a relief well and plug it permanently sometime in early August. If the casing is ruptured, BP would open the sealing cap and resume funnelling the crude through various collection systems.

Mr. Wells said a team of scientists, working with BP and Obama administration officials, wanted further review of the well integrity test to ensure they properly understood what the pressure readings would imply, and better assess risks that the build of pressure would create additional cracks beneath the surface through which the crude might escape - a risk he described as low.

An unstable area around the wellbore could create bigger problems if the leak continued elsewhere in the well after the cap valves were shut, experts said.

...The cap is just a stopgap measure. To end the leak for good, the well needs to be plugged at the source. BP is drilling two relief wells through the seafloor to reach the broken well, possibly by late July, and jam it permanently with heavy drilling mud and cement. After that, the Gulf Coast faces a long cleanup.

...BP engineers planned to shut off pipes that are already funneling some oil to two ships, to see how the cap handles the pressure of the crude coming up from the ground. Then they planned to close, one by one, three valves that let oil pass through the cap.

Experts said stopping the oil too quickly could blow the cap off or further damage the well.

Scientists will be looking for high pressure readings of 8,000 to 9,000 pounds per square inch. Anything lower than 6,000 might indicate previously unidentified leaks in the well.

“What we can't tell is the current condition of the wellbore below the seafloor,” Mr. Allen said. “That is the purpose of the well integrity test.”

If the cap cannot handle the pressure, or leaks are found, BP will have to reopen the valves and let some of the oil out. In that case, BP is ready to collect the crude by piping it to as many as four vessels on the surface. _Globe&Mail

In hindsight, it seems obvious that BP should have unbolted the riser and bolted on a new containment cap -- with anti-methane hydrate precautions -- from the earliest days of the leak. But many of these procedures have been developed specifically for this leak, and will serve as a textbook of sorts for future deep sea spills -- which are 100% certain to occur.

Al Fin engineers feel that BP should use the new cap for full containment, together with additional production vessels on the surface. But BP wants to shut the well down as soon as possible, to score a public relations home run and to stop the ruinous daily leakage fines and penalties. Without the total containment effort, an exact measurement of flow rates may not be achieved. It would be a pity to shut the well down at this stage without a definitive flow rate having been obtained -- although recent flow rates may not exactly correspond to earlier flow rates.

It is unfortunate, and frustrating, that the relief well activities have to be temporarily suspended for the pressure tests. Suspension of collection activities on the Q4000 and Helix Producer is understandable, however, for the duration of testing.

If the test results are favourable, BP intends to shut the well down from the top, and then to shut the well from the bottom (bottom kill) using heavy mud, when one of the two relief wells is able to do so. Final killing of the well is predicted to occur in August.

Multiple ROV feeds
Another site with multiple ROV feeds

New Sealing Cap Being Lowered, Prepared for Crucial Pressure Test

Update #2 13July2010: BP is conducting a series of well-integrity pressure tests, to determine whether the wellhead can withstand a total shutdown of oil flow by the new sealant cap / blowout preventer stack. During this time, oil collection to the Q4000 and the Helix Producer are suspended.

If the well and wellhead can hold the pressure coming up the Macondo bore, BP may decide to use the hydraulic ram stack incorporated into the new cap, to shut down the flow. Presumably, if they have any doubt whatsoever about the ability of the well and wellhead to hold high pressure over the next weeks or months -- while the relief wells are attempting a "bottom kill" -- BP will decide to resume full-scale oil containment and collections through the new cap and through the old blowout preventer on the seafloor. More...

Update 18:30 CDT: After a painstakingly slow approach, BP was successful at placing the new sealing cap atop the transition spool (which is bolted atop the blowout preventer). At this point all oil and gas appears to be passing through the new cap and transiting the upper vents. Now BP will conduct a 48 hour test to determine the integrity of the well, and whether they can capture all the oil that is escaping.

If the tests are a success, BP should be able to contain all of the leaking oil for the next few weeks -- until the relief wells can finally kill the well from below (bottom kill)....

Original posting:

BP crews were about 300 feet away from placing a new sealing cap on top of the runaway Maconodo well in the Gulf of Mexico this morning, the company's Chief Executive Officer Doug Suttles said.

The cap, which is essentially a small blow out preventer with a cap on top, has the potential to completely shut in the flow of oil from the well. It will be lowered into place sometime today, Suttles said. _NOLA

al.com
BP is in the final stages of lowering the new sealing cap on top of the transition spool (seen above) which had been affixed onto the Macondo blowout preventer (BOP) earlier. Operations are proceeding ahead of schedule. As soon as the sealing cap is in place and prepared, BP can go ahead with a 48 hour pressure test to determine whether they can fully "shut in" oil containment.

Doug Suttles: Yes, Anne. So once we get the cap in place and fully hooked up we will then – the first thing we’ll do is close in production containment activities on the Q4000 and the helix producer. Once we’ve done that we’ll then close in – if you recall off the top of this ceiling cap is perforated pipe which will allow the flow to come out. We’ll then close that in. Working with government scientists in particular the DOE. We have a protocol for examining the integrity of the well based on the pressure response. That test could last – the initial phases could last about 48 hours. But depending on the response it may have to be extended. So at this point we’ll have to monitor the test and determine whether we can either leave the – leave the well closed in or whether it will be necessary to open it back up again. But I think we should expect that will take at least 48 hours before we know the results.
Anne Thompson: Does that mean there will be no oil flowing out at that point?
Doug Suttles: During the integrity test that’s correct, Anne. Unless of course we discover something during the test that requires us to reopen the flow, but during that 48 hour period there would be no flow. _BP PDF Transcript 12July2010

Once the cap is installed, the company will perform a series of pressure tests to ascertain the wellbore's integrity, Mr. Suttles said.

High pressure would be positive news indicating that the integrity of the well is good and the cap is collecting all of the oil, Mr. Suttles said. Low pressure would indicate oil is escaping and the leak is not fully contained, he said. In that case, the company would have to rely on its containment ships.

The pressure testing could take a minimum of 48 hours, Mr. Suttles said. The entire operation should be finished within four to seven days of its start, which was Saturday.

"There are challenges with each of these steps we have to understand that some of these operations could take longer than forecasted," Mr. Suttles said.

Mr. Suttles stressed that no matter how things work out with the cap, the company is still placing its faith in the ability of a relief well to permanently kill the overflowing well. The relief well could be finished by the end of the month, he said. _WSJ_via_EnergyTribune

Another technical update is scheduled from BP at 14:30 CDT

Follow progress via live camera feeds:
Multiple feeds
More multiple feeds
Individual feeds by name of ROV

Kent Wells Update on New Sealing Cap and Helix Producer

Operations by deepwater ROVs to replace the LMRP sealing cap are underway at the Macondo well head. BP Vice President Kent Wells has provided a technical update dealing with both the new sealing cap, and the impending addition of the vessel Helix Producer to the oil containment effort. Within one week, BP should increase its containment capacity to between 60 and 80 thousand barrels per day.

Installing the sealing cap involves a multiple stage process with several vessels and remotely operated vehicles over an approximate 4-7 day period. The sealing cap has the potential to increase oil and gas collection capacity and should improve collection efficiency during hurricane season by allowing shorter disconnect and reconnect times. The new cap assembly should have a positive impact on future well kill and cementing procedures that will be part of the relief well operations. In addition, the new cap should enable testing of well integrity and, depending on pressure measurements, may be used to shut in the well. _BP

Kent Wells tech update on sealing cap (video)
Animation of sealing cap installation w/ Kent Wells
PDF slides for Kent Wells media briefing PDF

Be sure to watch this animation to see how everything fits together

Meanwhile, the two relief wells continue to be drilled and electromagnetically "ranged" to rendezvous precisely with the Macondo well bore, for definitive "killing" of the gushing well. Killing operations by the first relief well could begin as early as 7 days from now.

More from Brian Wang

Here is a link to multiple simultaneous live feeds of ROV activity involved in oil spill containment operations

Update on Efforts to Stop the Oil Spill in the Gulf

1. New cap over the blowout preventer (BOP) to allow more efficient oil recovery:

BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) told the U.S. Coast Guard late Friday that it would start work on a new containment Saturday instead of waiting until it has hooked up a third vessel to handle oil recovered from its leaking deepwater well in the Gulf of Mexico.

In a letter to Ret. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, BP projected it could finish the new-cap operation in five days if is doesn't encounter any unexpected hurdles. Its contingency plan puts the finish time nine days from now.

The accelerated plan is designed to take advantage of an eight-day window of favorable weather. _WSJ

While the new cap could capture more oil, it would require taking off the old cap, which would release more oil into the sea until the new cap was placed over the BOP.

Even with a new cap, some oil would still be escaping, Allen explained, since the seal cannot be 100% effective.

Additionally, a partial leak is desirable, he said, because oil coming out means seawater is not intruding into the pipe, which if it did would lead to icy hydrate formation and the eventual plugging of the pipe. _Upstream

Update 10July: Work has begun on replacing the LMRP cap with a new cap capable of capturing a larger volume of oil and gas.

2. New recovery vessel Helix Producer to be added next week to bring oil recovery above 50,000 barrels per day. The Helix Producer had been delayed by bad weather, but should be moved into play fairly soon.

BP also said the third oil-collecting vessel, known as the Helix Producer, could start up by Sunday. It should roughly double the site's capacity to capture oil to about 53,000 barrels a day. _WSJ

3. Floating riser system to be installed next week, following installation of the new LMRP cap.

The system, which would have floating riser systems leading to four vessels at the surface would have more processing capacity (up to 80,000 barrels per day) and would be more resilient in bad weather.

The first floating riser containment system, which will be attached to the Helix Producer, is now expected to be ready towards the end of the week, said BP.

Hooking up the new system requires BP to replace the current containment cap with one that would be firmly attached to the well, which could potentially catch all of the oil. _Upstream

4. Relief wells for ultimate securing of the Macondo well:

Allen also said the first of two relief wells intended to intercept and plug the leak should bore into the stricken wellbore in seven to 10 days.

But he said the plugging process could be lengthy, so the target date remains early to mid August rather than this month.

BP managing director Bob Dudley told the Wall Street Journal, "In a perfect world with no interruptions, it's possible to be ready to stop the well between 20 July and 27 July." _Upstream

What will have to happen is when the relief well is adjacent to the well bore and close enough to be able to turn to make the penetration, then we'll first penetrate the area outside the well pipe.

And we will see if there is oil there or not. At that point mud will be pumped into the wellbore to see if that contains the well. If that does not, the mud and a (inaudible) plug will be inserted and then we will drill again into the inner pipe.

That will be the second attempt to plug the well if oil is coming up through the pipe with mud and cement. These two procedures will take us into August. There're things that could happen that could shorten that but right now into August is what the official estimate is. _TOD

"Heading Out", a professor of mining who writes at The Oil Drum, exressed frustration with President Obama's "brains trust", which apparently has been sitting on some of the plans -- unable to decide whether to give the go-ahead.

The bottleneck here is the “brains trust” that Secretaries Chu and Salazar have assembled, and who will vet the idea. Here is my gripe. They have known about the design and the plans for weeks now. They have a short window of opportunity before the next storm rolls in and stops the effort, and they are only now getting the paperwork that they have to approve. It does not seem unreasonable to ask why this wasn’t done over a week ago, so that approval was in hand the moment that the weather allowed the procedure to begin. If the weather closes in again before the approval is given and the process completed, whose fault is this?

If the new cap is on, then when mud flows up the well it will go through the BOP and the sealed cap and up to the surface so that there is an additional pressure on the bottom of the well. If it is not, then the mud column weight above the BOP is lost. But the Federal Government is in charge, and processes and procedures must be followed, as they are repeatedly now informing folk. Sigh! So if the opportunity is lost, why that is just the way things go! _TOD

This points up the different mentality between bureaucrats such as Salazar, academics like the "brains trust", and people in the real world who have to get things done within certain windows of opportunity.

BP has to do everything according to government bureaucratic regulations -- or be subject to ruinous fines and penalties on top of what it is already paying. But government regulations are not always compatible with getting the job done, in the real world.

If the federal government cannot break through its own bureaucratic red tape in a situation such as this, then that government has become so sclerotic that it is living on borrowed time.

Meanwhile, how long can the sycophantic media continue to cover for the incompetence of this congress and this administration?

Killing the Well, and Tales of "A Whale"

The leading relief well is now at 17,000 feet, and slowly closing in on the Macondo bore. Meanwhile, on the surface, testing continues on the giant, 21 million gallon a day tanker-skimmer, named "A Whale."

The latest hopes are riding on a massive new skimmer to clean oil from near the spewing well in the Gulf of Mexico, while a local Louisiana parish's plan to block the slick has been rejected by federal officials. A 48-hour test of the Taiwanese vessel dubbed "A Whale" began Saturday and was to continue through Sunday.

TMT Shipping created what is billed as the world's largest oil skimmer by converting an oil tanker after the April 20 explosion sent millions of gallons of crude spilling into the Gulf.
The vessel was expected to cruise a 25-square-mile test site just north of the Macondo Deepwater well site, company officials said.

The U.S. Coast Guard and BP are waiting to see if the vessel, which is 10 stories high and as long as 3½ football fields, can live up to its makers' promise of being able to process up to 21 million gallons of oil-fouled water a day. The ship works by taking in water through 12 vents, separating the oil and pumping the cleaned seawater back into the Gulf.

"In many ways, the ship collects water like an actual whale and pumps internally like a human heart," TMT spokesman Bob Grantham said in an e-mail.

A Whale is being tested close to the wellhead because officials believe it will be most effective where the oil is thickest rather than closer to shore.

The ship arrived in the Gulf on Wednesday, but officials have wanted to test its capability as well as have the federal Environmental Protection Agency sign off on the water it will pump back into the Gulf, which will contain trace amounts of crude. The wait has frustrated some local officials, who say the mammoth skimmer would be a game-changer in keeping oil from reaching vulnerable coastlines.

During a Thursday tour of the inlet to Barataria Bay, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said it was exasperating to have A Whale anchored offshore instead of being put to immediate use.
"They've used the war rhetoric," Jindal said aboard a boat floating in oil-slicked waters near Grand Isle. "If this is really a war, they need to be using every resource that makes sense to fight this oil before it comes to our coast." _al.com

The US EPA will need to relax its absurd regulations -- which require all water re-injected into the Gulf to be 99.999% pure. Such unrealistic demands in the face of foul floating oil slicks and sheens only slows down recovery and rehabilitation efforts. But what can you expect from bureaucrats and politicians who have essentially no contact with reality? Most modern, tenured, lifetime academics are in the same category, unfortunately.

Bad as the BP Gulf oil spill is, the federal government's moratorium on deepwater offshore drilling seems certain to dwarf the spill's economic pain.

...Although President Barack Obama's shut-down order is nominally for six months, the legislative and rule-writing process it will invoke means that realistically businesses should expect it will be a year or more before it is lifted -- and longer yet before deepwater rigs resume operations.

...A ruling last month by U.S. District Court Judge Martin Feldman overturned the moratorium, nominally a six-month halt while a commission appointed by Obama makes policy recommendations to improve the safety of deepwater drilling. The government has appealed; another hearing is scheduled for Thursday. Feldman's order did not restart drilling because oil rigs are too big and complex to start up and shut down based on the latest signal from the courthouse.

...Scott, the Baton Rouge economist, cited a Morgan Stanley study advising that if ...[Obama]... prevails, there is a 60 percent chance the moratorium will last a year to a year and a half: That's six months for a safety commission to review and make recommendations, and up to a year for Congress to legislate and move new standards to the drilling rig floor.
To date, three rigs have served notice they are leaving the Gulf to drill elsewhere. _Nola

Governments of the western world are increasingly under the thumb of enviro-apocalyptics, true believers in the religions of human-caused apocalypse. Reality takes a back seat to their religion, which has gained an unbelievable influence over most governments of Europe and the Anglosphere.

Events such as the Macondo spill and various economic crises are sending shock waves through the body politic, revealing the incompetence of governments and bureaucracies, and spurring normal people to take more of an interest in how things are being done and run.

Update for Deepwater Horizon Oil Containment and Relief Wells

Update: A supertanker converted into a giant skimmer capable of cleaning 20 million gallons of oil water a day, is arriving in the Gulf of Mexico for final testing by the US Coast Guard. The skimmer/tanker "A Whale" flies a Taiwan flag, and was outfitted especially for the Gulf oil spill. Now it is up to the USCG to determine whether the huge skimmer -- 3 1/2 football fields in length -- will be certified to work in US waters. BP is likely to agree to most any price, just to put the giant skimmer to work in the most visible manner possible.

The US EPA has absurd rules for water purification in circumstances such as the Macondo spill -- requiring any water replaced in the Gulf to be 99.999% pure. 99% pure is not good enough, even if the intake water was only 70% pure. Calling the US government insane in such circumstances is to be too kind. And a 1920 federal law, the Jones Act, has been a large impediment to allowing foreign nations to assist the US cleanup efforts. The Jones Act is a sop to labour unions that the Obama Pelosi regime cannot afford to dispense with -- even if it means $ billions of unnecessary damage and untold hardship.

We're currently collecting at a rate of about 24,000 barrels a day, so roughly 1,000 barrels an hour. What I would say is this is progressing well. The equipment is operating very efficiently, very effectively and we always just need this to keep this in contact if it's not collecting all the oil and we're determined to find ways to do that. __Kent Wells Tech Update PDF

Rough weather in the Gulf has forced a delay in the plan to add the Helix Producer to the containment effort. The Helix Producer would collect an additional 20,000 + barrels per day from the BOP. It will take roughly a week for the storm waves to subside enough to complete the 3 additional days of work necessary to add the Helix Producer to the team.

Now in the meantime we will continue to be collecting from the enterprise and the Q4000, so we'll continue to collect the 24,000 barrels a day. We believe both those vessels should be able handle these sea states and so the way I would summarize this is the sea states that we'll see will not impact our ability to continue on with the subsea containment we have now. It will not impact the drilling of the relief wells.
The only thing it will do is it will cause a delay of about six days, whatever the weather is of bringing the next phase of subsea containment online. __Kent Wells Update PDF

The above image illustrates the total containment effort including the Helix Producer with its floating riser, and the two relief wells.

So I think if I talk in terms of the first relief well being drilled by the DD3. we're currently at a measured depth of 16,770 feet. The well is progressing very well. We've made three ranging runs and I'll talk a little bit about that in a minute but we're now roughly in sight on a horizontal plane about 20 feet from the existing Macondo well.

Now it's important to remember we still have another roughly 1,000 feet to be drilled vertically but we're getting very close. And so this is what I want people to realize. So we started the well at the surface some 2,800 feet away from the well. And we've now got to within 20 feet of it. And we will start what we call paralleling the well.
So we will be drilling vertically right down beside of a constant ranging so we know precisely where we are. __Kent Wells Update PDF

Go to this Kent Wells video with animation for a good view of the relief well ranging efforts to line up the relief well with the original well, for the purpose of entering the well and killing the oil flow permanently.

More on the Helix Producer here, and here.

Short report on a new, larger LMRP cap capable of completely containing all oil flow, which might be installed by mid-July. Remember that the relief wells are scheduled to intersect the original well bore sometime in early August.

This Kent Wells video presents an inside look at the relief well team operations on-site

Observation of the live cam at the wellhead demonstrates a fluctuation in oil spillage around the LMRP cap. But in general the spillage flow has been significantly down from the first week or so after cap placement. After the Helix Producer is successfully added to the effort, it is unlikely that very much oil -- relatively speaking -- will spill around the cap -- even the smaller cap which is currently in place.

Below is an overflight of the surface containment effort on 29 June 2010, along with shots of some oil slicks far offshore.

BP Increasing Recovery of Oil at Macondo Well Head

The logistics coordinator onboard the ship that has been siphoning oil from a gushing well in the Gulf of Mexico tells The Associated Press that a cap on top has been reattached and is again capturing some of the crude.

The crewmember on the bridge of the Discoverer Enterpriser said the cap was placed back on the gusher around 8 p.m. It had been off for more than 11 hours. _NOLA

The LMRP cap over the leaking Macondo well was temporarily removed due to an ROV mishap -- but is now back in place and recovering large amounts of oil, as before.

BP is adding yet another oil recovery ship to the medley -- the Helix Producer.

The Helix Producer will be collecting oil from the BOP and feeding it to the Loch Rannoch for storage. Note the preparation of underwater dispersant tanks, in case the fleet has to abandon the site due to an approaching hurricane. Speaking of which, the picture of the Gulf hasn’t changed much since yesterday, questions on the possibility of a hurricane being formed by the end of next week remain in the air.
_BitToothEnergy

With the addition of the Helix Producer, BP will be able to recover over 30,000 barrels per day of oil. That level of recovery should result in a significant observable decline in hydrocarbon leakage around the LMRP cap, as seen on the live cam. [Update 09:50 PDT: It appears that BP has significantly ramped up oil recovery so that relatively little oil [compared to earlier in the week - AF] is now spilling around the LMRP cap, as seen on the live cam. This is a remarkable improvement in just a matter of days.]

BP continues to prepare for hurricane season with construction of the floating detachable riser, and a seafloor based automated dispersant system. Relief well drilling continues ahead of schedule.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration is pulling out all stops in order to shut down oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic -- despite a federal judge's ruling that such a moratorium would cause irreparable harm to the economies of the Gulf region. But it is possible that irreparable harm to the Gulf offshore oil industry is precisely what Obama Pelosi has in mind.

Most of the offshore rigs are manned by non-union crews. And Obama has thrown in with George Soros in the big Brazilian offshore oil play. Soros needs those rigs down in Brazil -- so it is vital that Obama shut down US offshore drilling to free up the rigs for Mr. Soros' big project.

Ramping Up Surface Oil Recovery

Kevin Costner's machines are hard at work cleaning up the Gulf oil spill, and are "doing fantastic!" The three Costner machines in deep water are processing 600,000 gallons of oily water a day! BP has ordered 27 more machines from Costner, which are being put together and made ready for hard service as quickly as possible. (over 20 million gallons of oily water was recovered in the last 24 hours in the entire response)

BP has received over 60,000 suggestions for dealing with the spill and cleanup -- including one suggestion coming from two former NFL superstars -- Troy Aikman and Drew Bledsoe. The two quarterbacks have teamed with Jean-Michel Cousteau to promote a technology for rapid, non-chemical separation of the oil from seawater -- using ultrasonic transducers to create sonic cavitation. Probably not the most useful intervention for this particular situation, but keep trying boys.

A more likely invention comes from a company based in Mobile, Alabama.

This invention, which is the greatest hope we have seen yet for collection and cleanup efforts in the Gulf of Mexico, is a new kind of machine that has a collection capability far greater than any skimmer that has been used before. To be exact, these machines each have a collection capacity of up to 4,000 gallons per minute. All the skimmers being used in the Gulf up until now are able, all together, to collect less than half a million gallons a day, while just one BRS-2 is able to collect 2 million gallons a day. Other skimmers work by corralling the oil, usually inefficiently, by dragging boom, over and under which much oil escapes before it can be collected. This machine works differently than all the others by using the force of motion for direct collection of oil and water, and can be more effective in conditions where other skimmers cannot even be used.

BP already has one of these new machines, which they have put to the test in the Gulf, and it has performed even better than expected. Production of more BRS-2 units is underway now. The technology is being leased by BP from the Petroleum and Environmental Clean Up Company, a Mobile, Alabama-based company whose owners are the inventors of this technology. _Source

One machine that can collect 2 million gallons a day by itself! It sounds promising. More information on this invention from video below. As always, mind the hype.

And then there is the supertanker option. And probably a lot of other ideas which may actually work, but which have gotten lost in all the noise. Eventually, the best ideas should work their way to the top of the stack.

Here's the deal: Humans are going to be drilling in deep water for the next several decades. And there will be spills -- spills far worse than the Macondo leak which has pushed President Obama well beyond his level of competency.

Current technology for dealing with deepwater oil well spills -- both at the wellhead and on the surface -- is abominably primitive and ineffectual. At least up until now. The disaster of the Macondo spill has spurred the implementation of technologies which may have had to wait for a decade to be tested, otherwise. When this happens again -- and it most assuredly will happen again somewhere in the world, many times -- the technology for dealing with it will have improved thanks to Macondo. Of course, most countries of the world will not go to nearly so much trouble for this amount of ecological impact. But the commercial impact is bound to spur a response even in other countries with less concern for the environment.

Better technology for preventing and dealing with disasters above and below is critical. At least for countries in North America, Europe, Oceania, etc. China is not as likely to be concerned with this level of ecological damage -- and China is rapidly ramping up drilling in the China Seas. Brasil is also increasing offshore drilling, and even Russia is looking to drill off Cuban and Venezuelan coasts. Better get ready.

BTW, a federal judge has come down hard on the Obama administrations ill-advised moratorium on offshore drilling in the Gulf. It has long been obvious that the entire Obama Interior / EPA crew is incompetent and dishonest beyond redemption. It is refreshing to find that others can see the obvious, as well.