Relief Well Risks Adding 240,000 Barrels Per Day To Gulf Oil Spill

  Posted by - May 11, 2010 at 11:47 pm - Permalink - Source via Alexander Higgins Blog
Smaller steel dome being tried in attempt to cap gulf oil spill
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BP Relief Wells Bring Risk of Bigger Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

A new Bloomberg report says that BP faces the risk of an even bigger oil spill as it attempts to drill two so-called relief wells to plug a leak on the seabed of the Gulf of Mexico that’s gushing 5,000 barrels a day into the ocean.

The goal of the relief wells is to tap into the existing leak and to pump cement into the pipe to seal the leak. But to accomplish this task BP needs to first drill into the same unstable oil and gas deposit that caused a pressure surge which ignited in the original well and sank the Deepwater Horizon oil rig to the bottom of the ocean floor.
The relief wells will pump cement into the leak to seal it. To do that BP will need to first drill into the same deposit of oil and gas that caused a pressure surge known as

BP’s regulatory filing for a permit to drill the relief wells said that another blowout could result in and additional 240,000 barrels of oil a day into the ocean, almost 50 times more than amount of oil leaking from the Gulf oil spill according to government reports.

According to Fred Aminzadeh, a research professor at the University of Southern California, detailing the risks in the filing, BP may have factored in the volatile conditions found when drilling the original well that blew up on April 20 when detailing the risks of drilling the two additional relief wells.

BP has already deployed the Discover Enterprise and has begun drilling one of the relief wells to pump cement into the leaking Macondo well, about 40 miles from the Louisiana coast.The drilling of the relief well began almost in tandem with the deployment of the 4 story dome that failed to cap the oil spill. BP, based in London, expects to finish the wells by July 15, according to a plan submitted to the US Interior Department.

Nearing Shore

BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward discounted the chances of another blowout as the company works to bring the leaking well under control and foul weather pushed the expanding slick closer to shore.

“The relief wells ultimately will be successful,” Hayward told reporters in Houston. Drilling back-to-back relief wells is a “belt and braces” approach, “and will assure ultimate success,” he said.

Golf ball-sized clumps of tar were found this past weekend on Dauphin Island off the Alabama coast and six-foot waves in the Gulf through May 13 may push crude ashore west of the main entrance to the Mississippi River. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on May 8 closed public access to Louisiana’s Chandeleur and Freemason islands, the first areas where oil reached land.

BP has spent $350 million responding to the leaks and is the target of more than 100 lawsuits. A smaller steel structure is planned to be placed over the leaking well in the next few days in an effort to capture oil and direct it to the surface. A previous bid with a larger containment device failed on May 8.

Rubber Plug

BP also plans to shoot tire pieces, golf balls and other rubber items into the top of the well to plug it during the next two weeks, Hayward said.

In its original exploration plan filed with the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service, BP estimated the worst-case scenario for a blowout would spew 162,000 barrels of crude a day. Hayward has more recently put the maximum potential leak rate at 60,000 barrels a day.

Aminzadeh said the relief wells pose bigger risks because they will be tapping into a pocket of crude and natural gas that’s already flowing into the original well.

“It’s potentially the case that you’d see a larger volume of oil because in effect you’re puncturing two holes rather than one hole” in the formation, he said.

Scherie Douglas, leader of the regulatory compliance team at BP’s Houston-based exploration and production company, declined to comment about the blowout estimate. She referred a call to the joint incident command center in Robert, Louisiana, staffed by BP, U.S. Coast Guard and Minerals Management Service personnel. John Curry, a BP spokesman, didn’t return a phone message left for him at the center.

Second Well

BP began drilling a relief well on May 2 with Transocean Ltd.’s Development Driller III rig. The second well will begin on May 14 with Transocean’s Discoverer Enterprise vessel. The sites of the relief wells are 5,160 feet beneath the sea floor, BP said in its filing.

Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd. analysts estimated April 30 that capping the leaks and cleaning up the spill may cost BP and its partners in the Macondo prospect $12.5 billion.

Transocean, based in Geneva, owned the Deepwater Horizon that BP was using at Macondo last month. The vessel, which was built in 2001, sank to the bottom of the Gulf two days after the fatal explosion and fire. More than 100 crew members survived by jumping onto lifeboats.

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