Adm Allen just finished his morning presser where he just casually mentioned that they are going to “test” the old BOP and capping stack and take pressure readings to determine if the hydrocarbons in the annulus are “dormant” or if they’re connected to the reservoir. Translation: ”BP continues to have pressure on the wellhead from down below and have been letting me believe for a week that the well is static.” Of course, they’ve never disclosed not one bit of pressure data after the “well integrity test”, and even that “data” was sparse.
Yesterday, during his presser, the Admiral was asked about releasing the pressure readings and un-blurring the ROV feeds. The Admiral said he would check into the feeds and get BP to disclose the pressures. Of course, neither happened, and now he drops the bomb that they’re back to the ol’ BOP test again. That means they have no idea where the static kill and cement went.The Admiral tried explaining something that he doesn’t understand, and once again said they KNOW that the static kill went down the casing. They actually don’t know that. Since this was very likely a backside blowout in the first place, it’s conceivable that just the backside of the production casing is communicated to the reservoir; it could be both inside and outside. When you pump a top kill, you can’t control where the mud goes; it just goes the path of least resistance. If both the backside and casing are communicated, it will go down both, depending on pressures. When you test a kill, you run in with tubing to tag the cement. Here, of course, they can’t do that because they can’t get into the well.
He said they were shutting down for a currrent tropical system to pass over, have run in a storm packer, but plan on staying on location and ride it out. He said this storm shut down is going to give them a few days to “take some pressure readings” on the BOP. None of this makes the slightest bit of sense. You can bet that they alreay have a continuous data feed of pressure readings from multiple places in the capping stack from the moment they landed it, and have been getting pressure from the old BOP for months. They’re probably also taking readings from the casing head below the stack.
What is all this about? It’s pretty clear they have pressure on the wellhead when they shouldn’t. I’ll update after Kent Wells McBriefing at 3 pm cdt.
Bob Cavnar is the author of upcoming book Disaster on the Horizon , the first book on the oil disaster, due out in mid-October. It is available for pre-order in our bookstore.
This article was originally published on Daily Hurricane .
Adm Allen just finished his morning presser where he just casually mentioned that they are going to “test” the old BOP and capping stack and take pressure readings to determine if the hydrocarbons in the annulus are “dormant” or if they’re connected to the reservoir. Translation: ”BP continues to have pressure on the wellhead from down below and have been letting me believe for a week that the well is static.” Of course, they’ve never disclosed not one bit of pressure data after the “well integrity test”, and even that “data” was sparse.
Yesterday, during his presser, the Admiral was asked about releasing the pressure readings and un-blurring the ROV feeds. The Admiral said he would check into the feeds and get BP to disclose the pressures. Of course, neither happened, and now he drops the bomb that they’re back to the ol’ BOP test again. That means they have no idea where the static kill and cement went.The Admiral tried explaining something that he doesn’t understand, and once again said they KNOW that the static kill went down the casing. They actually don’t know that. Since this was very likely a backside blowout in the first place, it’s conceivable that just the backside of the production casing is communicated to the reservoir; it could be both inside and outside. When you pump a top kill, you can’t control where the mud goes; it just goes the path of least resistance. If both the backside and casing are communicated, it will go down both, depending on pressures. When you test a kill, you run in with tubing to tag the cement. Here, of course, they can’t do that because they can’t get into the well.
He said they were shutting down for a currrent tropical system to pass over, have run in a storm packer, but plan on staying on location and ride it out. He said this storm shut down is going to give them a few days to “take some pressure readings” on the BOP. None of this makes the slightest bit of sense. You can bet that they alreay have a continuous data feed of pressure readings from multiple places in the capping stack from the moment they landed it, and have been getting pressure from the old BOP for months. They’re probably also taking readings from the casing head below the stack.
What is all this about? It’s pretty clear they have pressure on the wellhead when they shouldn’t. I’ll update after Kent Wells McBriefing at 3 pm cdt.
Bob Cavnar is the author of upcoming book Disaster on the Horizon , the first book on the oil disaster, due out in mid-October. It is available for pre-order in our bookstore.