How Big Is The Pipe?

[bigtiller]

We have seen the pipe on the ocean floor leaking on the nightly news for 6 weeks now and I have not heard anyone say how big the pipe is. Is it 4 inches or 40 inches?

NBC's Brian Williams did not answer that question last evening but he did have a section of pipe on his desk like the one that is leaking and it looked to be about 16 inches with ｼ inch walls. But others saw Brian's news cast and thought it was more like 20 to 24 inches.

So, does anyone really know how big the pipe is?

 

[nap61]

One of the newscasts said the pipe was 22 in. in dia. They didn't say if that was inside or outside.

Norm

 

[Big Bri]

they said on the news that they were sucking up about 42,000 gallons of oil a day, thats less than what my trash pump will pump. I heard on the radio that Russia had a couple of wells that did the same thing, they drilled a second well at an angle and set off a low yield Nuclear bomb which closed the well.
It sure is sad to see what is happening to the gulf.

 

[mustangsallysdad]

According to BP...it is 24" OD and 21" ID.

 

[CDsdad]

According to BP...it is 24" OD and 21" ID.

I was told by one of the drillers from the Horizon it is 21" ID.

Everything about these rigs is getting bigger. I spent several years on a 4th generation semi and it doesn't begin to compare to the Horizon, which was 5th generation. The drillships are almost unbelievable in size.

 

[NSBound]

.... they drilled a second well at an angle and set off a low yield Nuclear bomb which closed the well.
It sure is sad to see what is happening to the gulf.

That's what they are working on in the Gulf now too (not so sure about the nuclear bomb part), but they say it will take until August sometime to get it done.

 

[aczlan]

I heard on the radio that Russia had a couple of wells that did the same thing, they drilled a second well at an angle and set off a low yield Nuclear bomb which closed the well.

Problems with that include:
Geology: Is the rock stable enough to melt into a plug, when the blast goes off, then hold that shape to keep the oil in. IIRC, they had some problems with rock crumbling and draining drilling mud during the drilling of this well.
Risk: If that doesn't work, you now have no way to try any other methods of plugging the well because you just destroyed the pipe.
Location: IIRC you have to get the bomb within a few feet of the pipe for maximum effectiveness
We have safer methods: If we get the pipe as close as would be needed for a bomb we can just as easily send up drilling mud and cement to plug the hole (thus the 2 "relief wells"
The bomb itself: A bomb would have to be made (or modified) to fit down the hole AND withstand the high pressures at that depth.
Diplomatic relations: It would not go over well in some nations for us to blow up a nuclear bomb underwater to shut off an oil well
Treaties: I think that we may possibly be signatories to some treaty that prohibits blowing up nuclear bombs underwater

See: Nuclear Option on Gulf Oil Spill? No Way, U.S. Says - NYTimes.com for their thoughts on the subject

Aaron Z

 

[Big Bri]

See: Nuclear Option on Gulf Oil Spill? No Way, U.S. Says - NYTimes.com for their thoughts on the subject

Aaron Z

Thanks, that was a good read.

 

[Lloyd_E]

Why could you place an inverted funnel over the pipe with a new pipe attached.
You would have to separate oil from water - which can be done easily - but at least you would stop the flow of oil into the gulf.

Should be using the KISS factor or at least get very creative. This has gone on far too long.

 

[aczlan]

Why could you place an inverted funnel over the pipe with a new pipe attached.
You would have to separate oil from water - which can be done easily - but at least you would stop the flow of oil into the gulf.
Should be using the KISS factor or at least get very creative. This has gone on far too long.

The problem is that if they get water in the oil/gas mix, it will turn to ice when the gas expands from its liquefied state (at the seafloor) to a gaseous state (at the surface). That is what happened to the first containment box, they had to stop using it because the pipe kept clogging with ice chunks.

Aaron Z

 

[MossRoad]

Why could you place an inverted funnel over the pipe with a new pipe attached.
You would have to separate oil from water - which can be done easily - but at least you would stop the flow of oil into the gulf.

Should be using the KISS factor or at least get very creative. This has gone on far too long.

If the solution is so obvious and simple, why don't you go down there and fix it for them?

Have you not been following the news? They already tried that. The pressures and forces at not only 5000' deep under water but added to that another 13,000 feet down the drill hole after that and the combination of natural gas in the flow of the oil, etc... make it way more complicated than it seems.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Why could you place an inverted funnel over the pipe with a new pipe attached.
You would have to separate oil from water - which can be done easily - but at least you would stop the flow of oil into the gulf.

Should be using the KISS factor or at least get very creative. This has gone on far too long.

Here is a surmise based on clues from what Iv heard in the unexplained "info" being spouted everywhere:
# The leak includes crude petroleum as well as gas in the compressed, or even liquified state.
# The pressure at a mile deep is high [2kpsi+], but the leak of course is higher pressure.
# When it comes out it is cooled by the water and expansion of the gas as it moves toward the surface.
# This cooling takes it below the freezing point of compounds that can result from the seawater/leak mixture.
# The crystals of "ice" that form are high enuf in proportion of the mix so that they obstruct and clog the line trying to suck up the leak.

The problem then is mainly in the startup. The high proportion of water must be eliminated quickly. Thats very difficult to do with a poor seal such as presented by the inverted funnel. The present pipe cutting exercise is to make a clean opening to which they can seal.:thumbsup::confused2:
larry

 

[deepNdirt]

I am for sure no expert in this sort of thing, and with this being said I think even with my limited knowledge but common since I must ask why when these pipes were being installed could they have not put shut-off valves every so many hundred off feet as they worked their way out from where the initial tap went in the ocean floor at least the first link of pipe have a shut-off valve to close I realize the depth of this pipe has something to do with the limitations of what they can do now, but why was there not a cutoff junction assembled into the very first length of this pipe before it was lowered into place?
I hope I don't seem too ignorant

 

[2manyrocks]

I like this thread focusing on the problem and how to fix it. That's TBN.

 

[rus_geek]

I am for sure no expert in this sort of thing, and with this being said I think even with my limited knowledge but common since I must ask why when these pipes were being installed could they have not put shut-off valves every so many hundred off feet as they worked their way out from where the initial tap went in the ocean floor at least the first link of pipe have a shut-off valve to close I realize the depth of this pipe has something to do with the limitations of what they can do now, but why was there not a cutoff junction assembled into the very first length of this pipe before it was lowered into place?
I hope I don't seem too ignorant

There is a shut-off valve installed. They've been referring to it as a blowout preventer, but it malfunctioned and they were unable to activate it.

 

[SPYDERLK]

There is a shut-off valve installed. They've been referring to it as a blowout preventer, but it malfunctioned and they were unable to activate it.

Yes, I hear there were two of them, both near the ocean floor. One malfunctioned and the other had a dead battery. :confused3: Now, I hear they are worried that plugging it will cause leaks in or around damaged sub floor piping. ... So theyre stuck with capturing and sucking up the discharge/leakage til the relief well intersects.

In order to get a good profile/seal for sucking it up they tried cutting it with a big saw, but the kerf closed during the cut pinching the saw. That was last Tues or Wed. Then they reportedly cut it with a large pair of shears and apparently got a good enuf end shape to try to seal to. From the live picture it looks like they must be capturing some since it looks better than yesterday. Does anybody know what the pipe orientation is? Vert/horiz/twisted?? :confused2:
larry

 

[aczlan]

From the live picture it looks like they must be capturing some since it looks better than yesterday. Does anybody know what the pipe orientation is? Vert/horiz/twisted?? :confused2:
larry

The Blowout preventer is vertical from everything I have seen. The thinner Riser/Drill pipe (which used to go to the surface) was bent over and laying all over the seafloor. It has now been cut off and the new cap is on and sucking up oil.

Aaron Z

 

[tallyho8]

I believe that the reason the blow out preventer is not working is because the pipe joint is stopping it. The BOP is designed to cut through the pipe and stop the flow but it can not cut through the thick joint where the two pipes connect.

The pipes are 20 feet long with a 6 inch joint so they figured there was a 95% chance that the BOP would not hit a joint and only a 5% chance that it would. They forgot Murphy's Law.

This is why redundancy is needed. If there were 2 BOPs stacked on top of one another and the joint prevented one from working, the other one would be clear of the joint and could work.