How Can they Stop the Oil Spill?

Unabogie

Philosopher
Unabogie
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Hopefully leaving politics out of the equation, is there any solution to stopping the well, regardless of cost? For instance, can they use explosives or debris to plug the gusher?

Let's say that the fortunes of BP or President Obama or the fuel consuming public were not at issue, what technology exists to stop the oil?
 
Hurry, call Uri Geller!!!

The situation is clear: an immediate phone call must be placed to Uri Geller.

Uri's bent spoons, made stopped watches run. Does this not sound similar to the sunken oil rig?

Maybe Uri can straighten or bend metal (whichever is needed here) using his remote psychokinetic powers. If he can make a stopped watch run, then closing a valve on the oil pipeline shouldn't be too hard to do. Right?

Let us concentrate. CONCENTRATE. CONCENTRATE. We must hope Uri is feeling "strong" this time...
 
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Ernie M said:
The situation is clear: an immediate phone call must be placed to Uri Geller.

Uri's bent spoons, made stopped watches run. Does this not sound similar to the sunken oil rig?

Maybe Uri can straighten or bend metal (whichever is needed here) using his remote psychokinetic powers. If he can make a stopped watch run, then closing a valve on the oil pipeline shouldn't be too hard to do. Right?

Let us concentrate. CONCENTRATE. CONCENTRATE. We must hope Uri is feeling "strong" this time...
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Um, what? I'm asking a legitimate question about existing oil technology. Do you have anything to add to the conversation?
 
According to a recent NPR report I listened to:

  • British Petroleum already has a second drilling rig in position nearby. As of Thursday (? -- maybe Friday), they were waiting on the necessary permits to begin drilling. Once the permits are approved, the plan is to drill down some 1800 feet, parallel to the leaking well shaft, then drill sideways about a mile, to pierce the casing of the well shaft. After piercing the casing, they'll pump heavy fluids followed by concrete into the well shaft, sealing it off and stopping the leak. This will solve the problem, but has an ETA of "several weeks".
  • Meanwhile, they're skimming the slick off the surface of the water, and pumping it into oil tankers. I imagine there's some limits to the amount of throughput their available infrastructure can provide, though. Another possible bottleneck might be the amount of capacity that's ready to hand. I mean, it's not like anybody has invested in millions of dollars' worth of empty oil tankers, floating idly in the Gulf waiting for such an event.
  • So they're corralling the spill with "booms", which I gather are some kind of floating barrier, and attacking it with "dispersants", which improve the situation through means I can't be bothered to investigoogle at the moment--maybe that could be your contribution?
  • There's also been talk of using booms to pull away a section of the spill and burn it off. This would cause its own problems, but may very well be the (much) lesser of two evils.
  • And of course technicians have been hard at work with ROVs, trying to close the valves at the well head and seal the leak that way.

All in all, it was easily the most informative and interesting five minutes I've spent listening to NPR in several years at least.
 
Unabogie said:
It wasn't obvious that it was a joke? Of course I know it's a joke. But I was hoping for something more in a skeptic forum devoted to science, math, and technology. Do you have anything to add to the conversation?
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He added humor. It happens. Relax a bit. This is the internet, not a formal debate.
 
Unabogie said:
It wasn't obvious that it was a joke? Of course I know it's a joke. But I was hoping for something more in a skeptic forum devoted to science, math, and technology. Do you have anything to add to the conversation?
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We can't be serious all of the time.

Humor helps us deal with some of the non-skeptics who hang out here or visit here.

Do not make us send away from the childrens' table.
 
theprestige said:
According to a recent NPR report I listened to:

  • British Petroleum already has a second drilling rig in position nearby. As of Thursday (? -- maybe Friday), they were waiting on the necessary permits to begin drilling. Once the permits are approved, the plan is to drill down some 1800 feet, parallel to the leaking well shaft, then drill sideways about a mile, to pierce the casing of the well shaft. After piercing the casing, they'll pump heavy fluids followed by concrete into the well shaft, sealing it off and stopping the leak. This will solve the problem, but has an ETA of "several weeks".
  • Meanwhile, they're skimming the slick off the surface of the water, and pumping it into oil tankers. I imagine there's some limits to the amount of throughput their available infrastructure can provide, though. Another possible bottleneck might be the amount of capacity that's ready to hand. I mean, it's not like anybody has invested in millions of dollars' worth of empty oil tankers, floating idly in the Gulf waiting for such an event.
  • So they're corralling the spill with "booms", which I gather are some kind of floating barrier, and attacking it with "dispersants", which improve the situation through means I can't be bothered to investigoogle at the moment--maybe that could be your contribution?
  • There's also been talk of using booms to pull away a section of the spill and burn it off. This would cause its own problems, but may very well be the (much) lesser of two evils.
  • And of course technicians have been hard at work with ROVs, trying to close the valves at the well head and seal the leak that way.

All in all, it was easily the most informative and interesting five minutes I've spent listening to NPR in several years at least.
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Thanks, that's an interesting tactic. I wonder how effective the skimming is. If it works, would it be more effective to massively blanket the sea with skimming boats? Or is there a point of diminishing returns on that? I saw something about lowering a giant dome over the gusher. I assume there's massive pressure building up from both the force of the oil and the water pressure that far down, but is there a reason that wouldn't work?
 
KingMerv00 said:
I don't think that fixes the problem. At least not completely. Crude oil doesn't burn away entirely.
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Right, and this isn't really a spill. A spill is a finite amount of oil released from a container. This is a gusher spewing a constant amount of oil. Burning it wouldn't account for the newly added oil. Something has to stop the flow.

ETA: I realize I called it a spill in the title, so the imprecise language started with me. Should have called it a "gusher".
 
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Some local Southeastern US states have been working with their own estimates. Florida officials estimate up to nine million gallons have been released already. Alabama officials are working on an estimate that four to five million gallons could be released daily. The cost of cleanup is going to be too big for even BP to absorb, especially when this thing hits the Florida Keys, home to a huge barrier reef, and I think BP will shortly become SEUSP (Southeastern US Petrol) and then we'll cap it. Cheers.

Oops, here's the link for the estimates: http://www.rr.com/news/topic/articl..._Surface_area_of_gulf_oil_spill_has_tripled/2
 
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Stories are still confused re the exact well condition.
According to Halliburton, the well was cemented 20 hours before the "incident", which raises the question- "How come the well is flowing"? Other sources imply the cement job was ongoing at the time of the reported explosion.
If the string of drillpipe used to pump cement slurry was still in the well when the rig sank, then it may be forcing the BOP to stay partially open. The tool joints of the pipe are bigger OD than the rest of the pipe. If the pipe rams closed on a tooljoint, fluid may be able to pass. The hydraulics that could open and reclose the rams are gone.
If an ROV can't close the rams "manually", then a relief well is the likely answer. That's already in progress.
It really depends what's down there. Last night on UK tv I saw an animated graphic implying there is a pipeline on the seabed leaking oil. This is so wrong, I don't know how they could have got it more incorrect without actually hiring Uri Gellar as a consultant.
 
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thaiboxerken said:
The free market will stop this spill.
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Come on now, I'm trying to keep the politics out of it so we don't descend into arguing. Since I don't know a lot about deep sea oil drilling, I want to see what ideas and technology there would be for stopping the flow, if money and politics were no object.
 
It amazes me when people think that an oil spill is such a huge disaster.

This is something that has been happening naturally for much longer than Mankind has been around. Large amounts of petroleum are buried in the Earth, and sometimes, these deposits breach and leak oil into the surrounding environment.

Even taking mishaps such as this most recent incident into account, our interest in petroleum as a source of energy has, if anything reduced the amount of petroleum being released into the environment.

Near where I grew up in Santa Barbara, there's a place known as Coal Oil Point, where petroleum and related substances have been naturally leaking for as long as the area has been known. It was named by some of the first sailors to explore the area, who found this area distinctive by the fact that they could smell the petroleum when they were in the area. This was, of course, long before we realized that petroleum was, in any way, valuable.

This area naturally produces more hydrocarbon-based “pollution” in a day than mankind produces in a year. Yet somehow, the Earth and the environment has survived this.

The current situation in the Gulf of Mexico is nothing, compared to Coal Oil Point. It seems like a mess right now, but on the scale of a few years, it won't even be noticeable.
 
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Bob Blaylock said:
It amazes me when people think that an oil spill is such a huge disaster.
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Not helping. This is a catastrophe to the wildlife and economy of the region. If you haven't been keeping up on that, read up a little and come back here later.

If we can't even agree that a massive oil spill washing up on our shores, killing our wildlife, ruining millions of fishing and tourism jobs, and costing billions of dollars to clean up, is a VERY BAD THING, we should just welcome our new Chinese overlords now and be done with it.

Ok, that out of the way, back on topic. How can they stop the flow?
 
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