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I honestly don't know. I can't imagine it being GPS based. but the fact that they think they can do it just amazes me.
How do they do that anyway?
Do they use some kind of sonic triangulation?
I honestly don't know. I can't imagine it being GPS based. but the fact that they think they can do it just amazes me.
GPS would be flat out impossible at those depth. My best guess is that they use what would be like a passive sonar, listening at three or more points around the hole. For accuracy, the listen to a pulse signal from the drill. Triangulation is then done by time differential of when the receiver sites hear the pulse.
This is how 911 location works for non-GPS cell phones.
Interesting link. Still doesn't say how they locate it. Maybe magnetometers.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/...and-error.html
Here's a clip from another article that discusses it a little more. Still doesn't explain how the directional sensors work.
The company appears to be making progress. Spokesman Graham MacEwen said Friday that the first relief well has now reached 12,090 feet below the floor of the rig, 5,000 feet from the sea floor.
BP interrupted drilling last week to install a blowout preventer, the safety device that's supposed to seal a well in an emergency, but which failed to do so on the main well.
The second relief well, MacEwen said, is 8,650 feet below the floor of the rig.
The relief wells start about a half mile from the original site and try to meet the original at a diagonal.
Drilling a well involves using a pipe that unfolds section by section like an antenna, only upside down.
With each section, the company drills and then pulls out the pipe and puts in casings to form the sides of the well.
Drills are equipped with directional sensors that do three-dimensional surveys to help workers see where the drill bit is and what it's encountering, while metal detectors help guide it toward the metal in the original well.
Once the drills intersect with the original well, typically just above or below where the problem occurred, cement is pumped in to seal it.
Dave Rensink, president-elect of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, said that drilling a relief well is not that different from drilling a regular well, except that the target is much smaller.
"The only problem is really finding it, " Rensink said of the original well. "You're trying to intersect the well bore, which is about a foot wide, with another well bore, which is about a foot wide. The probability of finding it the first time ... is probably pretty low."
When the company drills into the well casing but misses the right spot, it will need to set a cement plug.
As BP tries to meet the original well, it will need to have plenty of mud on hand, because when the drill actually connects, the mud from the relief well will have a tendency to get sucked into the lower pressure of the original well, and drillers could lose control of the relief well.
"That clearly is a risk. They need to be very specifically prepared when they penetrate the existing well bore, " Rensink said. "You want to make sure you're not creating a problem in your relief well that's the same problem as on your existing well."
Another link that explains the drill positioning a little better...pretty advanced technology. Some pretty smart engineers figured this stuff out.
http://www.energyindustryphotos.com/...are_drille.htm
"pretty smart engineers figured this stuff out"
oilco can afford the best minds, like Wall St can suck up the best talent.
-- Testing of BP well integrity "detected seep a distance from the well" in the Gulf of Mexico, Ret. Adm. Thad Allen says.
I'm going back to this because they now want to turn this test into a full time shut off of the well and this is the only plausible reason I can think they would want to do that.
Its obvious that if there are seeps then this is not the way to go but I think BP will try their ass off to push this through. Instead of simply reopening the vales in the cap they're saying they'd have to remove it which would lead to 3 days of oil spilling into the gulf.
Its such a crock of .
The prohibition is ridiculous and I'm sure our President sees the obvious conflicts of interest here. I hope he tears into them and demands full transparency. This is government data, the People's data...not corporate data. No more keeping secrets from the people to serve corporate interests please.
BP shares fall sharply on new seepage fears
Shares in BP have fallen sharply on the London stock market amid fears oil may again be leaking in the Gulf of Mexico.
At one point in London trading, BP was down 5%, before standing 2.42% behind.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10682402
I'm appalled that they are even considering leaving it capped if they are getting subterranean blowout. It may be showing as a "seep" at the ocean floor but it could be eroding the structural stability of the whole wellhead/blowout preventer etc. The friction of the surrounding seabed against the well bore is what holds everything up. Wash it out on one side and the whole thing could topple over.
"subterranean blowout"
That's probably too strong at this point, but yes, the oil eroding the supporting sand is clearly what Thad is worried about.
I generally dont put much truck into conspiracy theories other than for their sheer entertainment values....and I'm not suggesting one now. It aint a conspiracy if it's just one guy lying. This oil well blowout has had all manner of scare stories associated with it but few, if any, have had any credible backing. We may be getting some now.
Read the blog post then click the link and listen to the interview. Kunstler is seen by some as an alarmist but he's never gone completely Chicken Little and he characterizes Simmons as a straight shooter. Simmons has a serious and "clean" rep as an industry expert. You will have to decide for yourselves.
Am I being paranoid or am I being paranoid enough?
http://kunstler.com/blog/2010/07/what-if-hes-right.html
While you have your tinfoil hat on you can read this one too...
http://www.helium.com/items/1882339-...-killing-event
Anyone else think its great that Joe The Plumber designed the cap that stopped the leak…BP had no idea what they were doing...
I don't think the methane concentration would be enough and widespread enough to cause a general conflagration reaching to the shore, incinerating people. But it would make a good disaster movie.
After an initial maybe huge flare, it would be mostly limited to the surface where it was bubbling/spewing up, like the Ixtoc blowout. Billions of tons methane into the upper atmoshpere would make coal burning CO2 look like a mild burp. Even the deniers here would be convinced the resulting global warming was anthropogenic (but they'd never be man enough to admit they've been wrong all along.)
There have been reports of the leaks of oil a mile away from the drilling hole, going back many weeks. If the earth farts billions of oil into the Gulf, then
"Houston (and Miami, and Brownsville), We Have a Problem."
DC, (Dems and certainly not the business-friendly Repugs), will never, can never, stand up to the corps and capitalists raping the people and the earth.
Americans is ed, and un able. Repent, ye Sinners, The End Is Nigh.
I don't think it's the risk of explosion, per se, that is the issue with the methane. If true, the mere existence of such a phenomena is pretty alarming.
I posted the Kunstler article because he's got a little cred...he gets excited sometimes, but never into full bore conspiracy-nutville.
Kunstler ain't exactly a member of the tinfoil hat gang.
Matt Simmons is also short at least 10,000 shares of BP stock so he has a financial interest in trashing BP.
I saw that too...not sure what to make of it yet.
"Kunstler article because he's got a little cred."
but he says he doesn't know how/if to believe Simmons.
Simmons shorting BP and then spewing BP-caused catastrophes?
come on, rich people never do that.
btw, if you're nice, I'll introduce you to Fabulous Farbrice running Goldman's Abacus fund.
"Kunstler article because he's got a little cred."
but he says he doesn't know how/if to believe Simmons.
Simmons shorting BP and then spewing BP-caused catastrophes?
come on, rich people never do that.
btw, if you're nice, I'll introduce you to Fabulous Farbrice running Goldman's Abacus fund.
BP weighs ‘static kill’ operation to permanently seal still-leaking well
By Agence France-Presse
Monday, July 19th, 2010 -- 9:58 pm
BP weighs static kill operation to permanently seal still leaking wellBP floated a new option Monday to plug the Gulf of Mexico oil leak and end the economic and environmental disaster sooner than expected.
The "static kill" operation would involve pumping heavy drilling fluids known as mud through the blowout preventer valve system that sits on top of the well and then injecting cement to seal it.
Similar to the "top kill" operation that failed in May, BP believes it will now work because the oil and gas in the runaway well is sealed already by its containment cap so the mud won't need to be forced down so hard"
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0719/bp-...-stillleaking/
Don't they have to complete one of the bypass wells first?
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