OT: BP Gulf Oil Well Suggestions

There's plenty of ingenuity here, if you have a good suggestion, they have a simple online form:

http://www.horizonedocs.com/artform.php

Or call them at:

TECH/SUGGESTIONS (281) 366-5511

Maybe this forum can really get it fixed.
Send them in, call them up.
They need all the help they can get.

On the news yesterday they were going through the suggestion process.
They are over whelmed with suggestions and products and the particular person they were talking to was shooting down untested ideas or products.
Most products I saw were some sort of absorption product and looks like they could be tested on site in a small area first.
I think at this point there are no bad products, just stupid people.

They are over whelmed with suggestions.
Have even used one suggestion. Sticking the smaller pipe into the end of the well casing was a suggestion called in to a local radio station that was forwarded to BP.

Problem is everyone; even people that have never seen a oil rig in person; think they have the perfect fix. Good suggestions from people in the bussiness get buried among all the average Joe want to help suggestions.

I heard a suggestion of using a nuclear underwater blast.

I don't understand why they couldn't unbolt the pipe flange after the bent pipe was cut away. Then bolt a valve on top and close it. I left them a message.

don't you just get a charge out of the media and government women and gurley men who don't have the foggyest idea of what they are talking about. reminds me of a cooking show i watched of a woman describing how to put sausage caseings on a stuffing horn . said it was just like putting on nylons . i think most men would describe it differently .

The other side of that.... there's a lot of people in the business that mabey don't have a lot of life experience. They know how to do work on these wells 'by the book'.... insofar as they have one way of doing things and that's where their experience lies.
What they need right now is someone who has ample experience with.... developing 'presidential solutions'. Pardon the phrase. Combine that with someone who actually knows the cababilities of those ROV's.

It does strike me that what they're trying right now is plainly doomed to fail as they're basically trying to fit a cap with a hose nipple about 1/10 the size of the well pipe in terms of flow capacity.... I mean there isn't a lot of understanding of hydraulics there if they're trying something like that.
AS far as I can tell right now there's as much oil pouring out around the cap as there is going out through the nipple.
The basic premise might work if they fitted a full flow valve in place with a decent riser above it...
I'd also wonder if it isn't possible to weld it in place... I mean... robotic welding is not a new thing nor is underwater welding... Question is... logistically can a robot weld under water and can you get a power supply to 4900 feet of depth...
The only way I see them ever stopping that leak from the top is with a very small team of cowboys... and the 'cowboys' of the cowboys at that. Average isn't going to cut it this time.

Rod

I sent this suggestion in on that site. Use an air bag/inflating device, similar in function to micro-sized ones used to enlarge blood vessels but industrial sized and strength of the fire department air bags used to raise overturned vehicles. A hard probe tip, robot positioned, long enough to back away from the oil flow, is used to insert into the flow pipe and held into position. Then inflate the bag, shutting off the oil flow gradually. Disengage probe tip and leave inflated bag in position. A "soft" plug inserted into the i.d. of the pipe instead of trying to fit to the outside. Maybe it can deform to fit the damaged pipe shape under pressure to seal it off. Paul in Mississippi

Nawlens, I sent them that same suggestion too. The only thing different was that I suggested using the TOPKILL while they were doing it. From what they said, the TOPKILL worked as long as they kept doing it. Figured that would buy them the time to get that new valve with the CORRECT flange on it that would actually seal up, not some "get the diameter within an inch and hope for the best" idea like they are doing now.

> I don't understand why they couldn't unbolt the pipe flange after the bent pipe was cut away.

Yeah, that's all I could think of when I was watching video of that cutting yesterday. I'm sure it would be a nightmare to do with those clumsy robots though. If they want it stopped for good, disassembling that flange and bolting up something else there has got to be the only way.