That is the plan and what that are apparently attempting to do at this very moment. We’ll know probably later today if it works…I kind of have my doubts.

Problem is, it’s 5,000 feet down. I believe I read that BP had 4 vehicles down there and managed to cap 1 of 3 leaks. Something that far down and under that much pressure is going to be tough to deal with.

I think it's a whole lot more than that.

 

Investigators have said the oil rig explosion looks like it was due to a bubble of methane gas rocketing up thru the pipe.

 

Yeah....the little one didn't work. I bet that right now they are trying to figure out how to get the bigger one rigged to be heated as they lower it down to the bottom, so it doesn't ice up like the little one did.

 

I guess I didn't hear about the little one.

I didn't realize how deep it was. I was wondering why they didn't just go in there and fix the leak. :lol:

 

Yeah, 5,000 feet below the surface is too much for a human body so it's all being done by robots. The "small" box was the size of a 4 story building.

 

I saw the "little" dome on a truck headed east out of Beaumont last wednesday. It was laid down so it was hard to tell exactly what it was for, but with 2 Texas state troopers cars and 4 Louisiana state troopers acting as an excort, as well as being on an "Ace Transportion" unit, it was easy to guess that it was headed down to the Port of Fourchon (pronounced foo-shaun), where all the boats that service the deep water projects, stage out of. Now I know what it was going to be used for.

 

I'll be dern!
Hey, you saw history in the making!! :thumbsup:

 

Dag gum! :eek2:
I can't even imagine that.

Are they putting the box over the whole well, or just the leak? If the leak, it must be huge! I've never seen underwater oil wells, so I'm guessing it's not a pumpjack down there. :lol:

I have to admit, and I said it before that I didn't realized how deep it was; but at first I thought, 'why don't they just shut the pump off, and go in there, get an underwater welder and weld something on the pipe to stop the leak'. :lol:
I've learned that it's a whole lot more to it than that.

 

I don't know all there is to know about this, and I've never worked in an oil field. But... I DID stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night! :lol:

I don't think the oil is "pumped" out of the ground whether underwater or on land. When an oil deposit is drilled into and "tapped," it is under immense pressure and BLOWS up through the derrick. (That's old school Kilgore, Texas talk!) The well is CAPPED, and a pump is attached to "regulate" the flow of oil.

[note: due to the distance between the opening and the pumphead 5,000 feet above, the flow might be slowed and a pump needed to "suck" the oil up.]

There WAS no "pump" on the ocean floor. It was on the rig that blew up. So, the oil was being FORCED up and out through the leaks in the horizontal pipleline laying on the ocean floor.... LEADING up to the pumping rig.

The pressure underground was forcing (I believe) 210,000 gallons a day into the gulf. (Also, just like a diver without a weightbelt, it is more "bouyant" than water and thus rises quickly to the surface.)

Part of the problem, I believe I heard, was that there WAS NO "blow off" valve installed by BP or Haliburton. So, the FIX for this eventuallity was "skipped" for profit reasons by BP.

The DOME (I haven't heard of a big and little one) believe it or not.... was an idea I had before hearing they were going to attempt it. The idea of encasing the leak, and syphoning off the oil onto surface vessels, was my first thought.

I hear it didn't work because of some "crystallization" inside the dome that would block that flow. Not sure why that would matter. They're now talking about inserting old rubber tires and GOLF BALLS to plug it up! Well, wouldn't the crystalls have done that? :roll:

caveat: SOME of this may have been covered in Windy's post, but.... I went to the pizzer after the first sentence, and never made it back! And I have yet to find time to read that dissertation by OrangeTXguy, too! :lol:

Robertt.... there are DIFFERENT "grades" of crude oil in different deposits. THIS oil is on the lighter side, and not QUITE as "tarry" as some types. It will do LESS damage if it makes shore, but it will be devastating nonetheless.

The Exxon Valdez carried a THICKER type of crude AND it spilled MILLIONS of barrels within a much shorter time. This is a BAD spill, but it has the possibility of being stopped before it becomes a disaster of THAT proportion.

Getting into the Gulf Stream would be bad, but I'm not sure as bad as they say. I heard they were actually hoping for a hurricane because it would disperse the oil over a greater area of the gulf by hopefully blowing it out to sea. Then, other factors take hold and help dillute and disperse the oil.

You can't set the entire "spill" on fire because it would be a self-fueling fire. They've been dragging smaller portions of it away from the main spill and burning them for days now. Oil on water, without reinforcement, WILL eventually burn up. That is that part of the plan.

I know that everyone involved, from BP to the government, is doing all they can. I believe GMAN is incorrect, and jumping the gun against the gov't. They've been burning the oil off since the first slicks were noticeable.

I have FAITH that the best minds of the gov't and the industry will find a solution to this in time (more or less.) Meaning, I believe we will once again show that American ingenuity can prevail.

But, I wouldn't sneeze at anybody's attempt at PRAYING! :lol2: