Oil on the beach at Pensacola

[jo191145]

Based on the reports of the mud weights used drilling the well the pressures generated from the well are between 12,000 and 15,000 psi. The only way to stop the blowout is the relief well. Hitting a 7" target at 16,000 feet is no easy task.

DDriller The funnel, a long cable and a ship with a winch should make it pretty darn easy. just keep bobbin until you get it right. In all seriousness I appreciate the education your giving me/us

Others have speculated the pipe and surrounding terrain could not handle the pressure of capping this well. If that is true then what good does the blow out preventers provide? Seems they would be rather useless even if they worked as intended.
By this logic once a well is drilled it could not be shut down at all. I seriously doubt thats reality but must be missing something.

edit
Just read XR650's link. Guess that might answer my questions pretty well.

 

[chino69]

Here is a pretty good video of the procedure to intersect the well. Breaching the casing from the outside in is still going to be a challenge.

http://bp.concerts.com/gom/reliefwellgraphics062710.htm

Thank you for the link; extremely informative and hopeful.

Chino69

 

[TomD]

Update: This is yesterday, June 30th as a Hurricane Alex spawned storm blackens the sky. The sea is kicked up a bit too, lessening the containment efforts. This shot is from about 4 miles west of the pier. Closer to the pier nearer to the heavy tourist areas the beach is close to pristine. Unfortunately, there is another couple of hundred miles of coast too.

I found the reason that the clean up workers don't seem to move much, spending the great bulk of the day under their tents drinking Gatorade. Turns out than in current beach conditions, around 90 and high humidity, OSHA only allows 15 minutes of actual work per hour. I've done some projects in coastal areas over the years. Good thing I didn't have to put up with that, I'd have never gotten anything done. Poor darlings, hope they never join a roofing crew. Maybe I'm out of line, it's not their fault but they are getting between $2,000 and $5,000 per week after overtime.