For some reason - maybe it's my location way up here in the NW corner of the country - I've been confused about the situation surrounding the Deepwater Horizon drill rig disaster. This morning I found a graphic that explains it all much better. Here is a link: http://paddlingtravelers.blogspot.com/2010/05/how-to-kill-oil-spill-gulf-of-mexico.html It's quite a link but worth looking at. I had been confused over reports of crude oil coming from up to three separate locations. This made me think that the well had been so poorly cemented that there had been a blowout through the sides and up through the sea floor. This, as it turns out, is not the case. The oil is flowing only from the wellhead BOP but from the riser (the 40" casing that encloses the drill pipe and mud) which lies damaged and leaking on the sea floor and these are the sources of the other leaks. This all makes better sense now. I suspect that the oil will continue to flow from the well until they can get a relief well drilled. The rig they will be using for that is depicted in this link: http://paddlingtravelers.blogspot.com/2010/05/gulf-oil-spill-one-way-or-another.html Look closely and you will see two derricks side-by-side. This means that they can be drilling two wells simultaneously. By doing this they can drill one relief well to siphon off the pressure and another well above it to cement in the old well. Should be an interesting job. What a mess! Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA www.nwkayaking.net *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue May 11 2010 - 08:33:46 PDT
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