Ideas to stop the oil flow

taha · 05-26-2010, 07:03 AM

After watching the oil spill in the Gulf, what ideas would you use to stop the flow ? I've watched the video and it seems so simple, but at 5000 ft things get pretty hard to work on by robots only. I'll say this, you would think that they would have a backup plan, but with some 35000 deep wells, the industry has been pretty safe.
It would seem they could overlay a pipe and use some sort of compression fitting, or maybe insert some sort of expanding air bag....
.
ideas, for the heck of it ????

flipflop · 05-26-2010, 07:30 AM

Now... I'm by no means an engineer or anything - but it seems to me it's less than impressive that it's taken highly paid experts more than a month to suggest an attempt 'to pour some 'crete in the hole...'.

**Lord Grendel** · 05-26-2010, 08:04 AM

One thing that should be done regardless of how they fix this particular leak, is to install a double valve assembly. When they drill that deep there should be a fail safe designed that can shift the oil to a back-up pipeline or turn off the flow until they make repairs. Similar to the Christmas trees they use on oil fires, if they can withstand the pressure I am sure an underwater equivalent would work.

Force the oil companies to build that feature into their deep underwater wells, to minimize the damage. Seeing all the pictures of the coast and the magnitude of this spill makes me really sad.

ThinLizzyFan · 05-26-2010, 01:31 PM

very upsetting...: (

all the poor animals and fish.. makes me sick thinking about them suffering

Odysseus · 05-26-2010, 02:49 PM

Originally Posted by Lord Grendel

One thing that should be done regardless of how they fix this particular leak, is to install a double valve assembly. When they drill that deep there should be a fail safe designed that can shift the oil to a back-up pipeline or turn off the flow until they make repairs. Similar to the Christmas trees they use on oil fires, if they can withstand the pressure I am sure an underwater equivalent would work.

There was a fail safe valve installed for just this type of accident however, it also malfuctioned.

Instead of trying to cap it, I'm puzzled as to why BP isn't sucking as much as they can from what is coming out already.

ThinLizzyFan · 05-26-2010, 02:52 PM

Originally Posted by Odysseus

There was a fail safe valve installed for just this type of accident however, it also malfuctioned.

Instead of trying to cap it, I'm puzzled as to why BP isn't sucking as much as they can from what is coming out already.

I agree..unless the sizing on TV is way out of context,..it would sure look like they could lower some sort of suction tube of greater size over the broken pipe..

Mr. Shadow · 05-26-2010, 02:56 PM

Stuff Barak's, Nancy's, and Harry's fat heads in the hole.
Then cover everything with a million tons of cement.

**Lord Grendel** · 05-26-2010, 02:56 PM

I am also puzzled why all of the companies didn't get together years ago and come up with a contingency plan for this...I guarantee there will be changes Mandated no matter what else happens.

Thanks Odysseus, I wasn't sure about the secondary system but I guess being humans even our back-ups don't always work.

BP is not doing a good job on any of this. Oil is bad enough, but those dispersal chemicals are worse than the spill itself. We have bacterial organisms that will feed on the oil and take care of it over time.

Odysseus · 05-26-2010, 03:14 PM

Originally Posted by Lord Grendel

I am also puzzled why all of the companies didn't get together years ago and come up with a contingency plan for this...I guarantee there will be changes Mandated no matter what else happens.

Thanks Odysseus, I wasn't sure about the secondary system but I guess being humans even our back-ups don't always work.

BP is not doing a good job on any of this. Oil is bad enough, but those dispersal chemicals are worse than the spill itself. We have bacterial organisms that will feed on the oil and take care of it over time.

I agree LG although they are trying after the fact to contain the hazard and it may not be as easy as it looks to do so.

When it first happened, I was pondering how the oil could just be freely spewing out from the hole when, at 5000 feet below the surface, the water pressure is at least a ton - enough to basically not allow any of the oil to flow upward. Of course the pressure and velocity of the oil may be equal to, or even more at that depth, to overcome the water pressure.

Maybe it's not as simple as just inserting a couple of "straws" in the breach to capture and divert the oil.

**Lord Grendel** · 05-26-2010, 03:20 PM

I am sure that is why they are having problems, the pressure forcing the oil up is greater than the weight of the water.

This was always the risk of deep wells off the coast, I saw the Senators of Washington State, Oregon, and California are proposing no drilling period off their shores after witnessing the catastrophe in the Caribbean. There comes a time when the Natural bounty of your coast is greater than the value of the oil being pumped out of the sea floor, one or two spills like this take years to recover from.

taha · 05-26-2010, 04:44 PM

Originally Posted by Lord Grendel

BP is not doing a good job on any of this. Oil is bad enough, but those dispersal chemicals are worse than the spill itself. We have bacterial organisms that will feed on the oil and take care of it over time.

Not so sure of that, I saw a report from a Houston news station that reported on a copmpany that sells suplies to BP. BP calls them everyday for these cleanup supplies, but the GOOOOBERMENT WON"T ok them.
.
oan, one of my sons friends dads works closely w/ BP, and he says everything BP wants to do is held up by the GOOOBERMENT red tape
.
so basically , we're FKD

taha · 05-26-2010, 04:46 PM

just read where they won't know for a few days if the mud mix will work,,
we were talking at work today and a GIANT clamp idea came up, just pinch the pipe ???

**Lord Grendel** · 05-26-2010, 07:05 PM

Which government is holding things up Taha? The feds, the state or county or all of them?

No matter what BP's use of the chemicals to disperse the oil slicks is terrible.

I fail to see why we couldn't have the world's Largest ocean dredge fitted with a special pipe/funnel and just suck the oil and water right from the rupture, pump it into tankers separate it and take it to a refinery. It is better than the feeble solutions I have seen offered so far.

taha · 05-26-2010, 07:34 PM

Originally Posted by Lord Grendel

Which government is holding things up Taha? The feds, the state or county or all of them?

No matter what BP's use of the chemicals to disperse the oil slicks is terrible.

I fail to see why we couldn't have the world's Largest ocean dredge fitted with a special pipe/funnel and just suck the oil and water right from the rupture, pump it into tankers separate it and take it to a refinery. It is better than the feeble solutions I have seen offered so far.

great question, the guy being interveiwed just said government red tape and the dispersants are 1/8 as toxic as what's being used now
.
and didn't they have ships in Alaska's spill pumping up the excess oil, where are they ? great point

ThinLizzyFan · 05-26-2010, 08:24 PM

Originally Posted by Lord Grendel

I am also puzzled why all of the companies didn't get together years ago and come up with a contingency plan for this...I guarantee there will be changes Mandated no matter what else happens.

Thanks Odysseus, I wasn't sure about the secondary system but I guess being humans even our back-ups don't always work.

BP is not doing a good job on any of this. Oil is bad enough, but those dispersal chemicals are worse than the spill itself. We have bacterial organisms that will feed on the oil and take care of it over time.

me too.. I agree..

its amazing they didnt have some sort of viable back up plan projecting this could happen..