BP Oil-Collection Chamber Clogs, Removed From Leaking Gulf Well
May 9th, 2010Via: Bloomberg:
BP Plc’s latest effort to prevent oil leaks from damaging wildlife and tourism on the U.S. coast are being stymied as cold and pressure a mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico formed ice that clogged a containment device.
The device, a 40-foot-tall steel chamber BP hoped would capture the gushing oil and funnel it to an overhead drillship, was blocked by ice crystals formed from gas hydrates at the well site, the company said. An estimated 5,000 barrels of crude are spilling each day from the well, threatening shrimping and fishing grounds that supply a quarter of the U.S. seafood.
“I wouldn’t say it’s failed yet,” Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer for exploration and production, said yesterday. BP expects to break up the hydrates by sending warm water through an insulating layer, he said.
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The containment system, now set aside on the seabed about 200 meters (656 feet) from the biggest leak, was London-based BP’s best hope for slowing the spread of oil while it drills a relief well aimed at relieving pressure so the flow can be stopped altogether. BP has 20 experts studying the possibility of injecting pieces of rubber into the well to stop up the pipe.
“We continue to look to see if that’s going to be a viable option” and not make the leak worse, Suttles said yesterday at a press conference in Robert, Louisiana.
Meanwhile, BP will consider ways to prevent the containment dome from clogging, such as applying heat. Hydrate gases crystallize like ice in the cold waters and high pressure 5,000 feet beneath the ocean’s surface.
BP engineers thought the opening atop the dome was large enough that it wouldn’t clog with hydrates, Suttles said.
The company expected the containment system, a rectangular structure with a pyramid-shaped dome on top, to capture as much as 85 percent of the flow of oil. He said the relief well is “ahead of plan,” having reached a depth of 9,000 feet.
