Even if BP oil well cap is getting 90% of the oil it still means that 1,900 ...

[Botany]

.... barrels a day will still be leaking into the gulf.

19,000 barrels per day leaking x .1 = 1,900



Still it is a start.

[Junkdrawer]

1. They're not getting 90% nor would they EVER get 90% with the current configuration....

They can't "pump" because it's a gas/oil mixture. All they can do is provide an up path, through 1 mile of pipe, to the surface. And that has to compete with the seals on the cap.

[Botany]

2. I was worried when they didn't get a clean cut on the pipe

n/t

[liberal N proud]

3. That is a lot of pressure at those depths.

It will take the easiest path.

[Statistical]

5. You can't pump oil gas mixtures?

Really?



Someone should let TX know they have been violating the laws of physics for last 50 years.

Pumping an oil gas mixture is more difficult but not impossible. The pumps on drilling ship are rather powerful. The larger concern is too much suction.

Too little suction and a lot of oil escapes
Right amount of suction maximum amount of oil captures and minimum seawater captured.
Too much suction and a lot of seawater enters the mix.

Too much seawater and it overcomes the heating/methanol system and you get ice formation in tube = bad.

[Junkdrawer]

13. Your picture is of a Reciprocating Pump:

A pump consisting of a piston (Plunger) that moves up and down in a cylinder (barrel). The pump is equipped with standing valve (suction) and travel valve (discharge). On the upstroke the standing valve opens and fluid is drawn into the pump. On the down stroke, the standing valve closes and the travel valve opens, and fluid is forced out of the pump.

At the bottom of the borehole is the "down-hole pump". This pump consists of two ball valves: a stationary valve attached the barrel called the "standing valve" and a travel valve connected to the bottom of the plunger. The plunger is connected to the bottom of the sucker rods that travels up and down as the pump Jack reciprocates, Reservoir fluid seeps from the formation into the bottom of the borehole through perforations that have been made through the casing and cement (casing is a larger metal pipe that runs the length of the well, which has cement placed between it and the earth.

The tubing, pump and sucker rods are all inside the casing). When the rods are traveling up, the traveling valve is closed and the standing valve is open (due to the drop in pressure in the pump barrel). Consequently, the pump barrel fills with the fluid from the formation as the traveling piston lifts the previous contents of the barrel upwards.

When the rods begin pushing down, the traveling valve opens and the standing valve closes (due to an increase in pressure in the pump barrel). The fluid in the barrel (which was sucked in during the upstroke) flows up through the traveling valve. The piston then reaches the end of its stroke and begins its path upwards again, repeating the process.

Often, gas is produced through the same perforations as the oil. This can be problematic if gas enters the pump, this can result in "gas locking", where insufficient pressure builds up in the pump barrel to open the valves (due to compression of the gas) and little or nothing is pumped. To avoid this, the inlet for the pump is placed below the perforations. When the gas enters the well bore through the perforations, it bubbles up the annulus (the space between the casing and the tubing) and does not have space to make it into the pump. Once at the surface, the gas is collected through a tube connected to the annulus.

http://www.quinnpumps.com/Recip_Pumps.html

[lumberjack_jeff]

17. You don't have to pump it.

The oil has a specific gravity of something less than 90% of water. If you simply fill the pipe with oil, cap the top and measure the pressure at water level, the pressure in the pipe will be something like 400 psi.

Unless they've chosen a significantly undersized pipe, the 500 gpm will flow blast right into the tanker. More likely, they'll have to throttle it to prevent too much seawater entry.

[Junkdrawer]

18. 500 gpm translates to 17,000 bpd. Let's see what they get, but....

independent experts were putting the leak at 50,000 to 95,000 bpd and that was before the riser was removed.

[Statistical]

19. Independent scientific panel (comissioned by US govt) puts the leak at 12K to 19K bpd. n/t

[Junkdrawer]

22. For weeks the US govt kept the official number at 5000 bpd....

even after that number was OBVIOUSLY wrong. The US govt seems highly motivated to minimize the leak.

[Statistical]

23. Except the panel was made up of INDEPENDENT scientists and academics.

Many who are well known and respected.

People have a personal and professional reputation to maintain.
Not a single member of the panel was an employee of BP or the US govt.

So a large group of independent scientists with the most complete set of data using three different independent methods achieved an estimate of 12K to 19K bpd.

Just because a person with a blog says 90K or 200K or elventy quadrillion bpd doesn't make it true.

Had the panel come back with a number higher than 90K would you still be claiming they are wrong and the leak is no more than 90K? I doubt it.

[lumberjack_jeff]

21. The only reasons they couldn't collect all of it

a) methane ice plugs the workings
b) they've chosen a too-small pipe to connect to the surface
c) they throttle the flow to prevent entry of any seawater

My guess is that a) is the biggie. As I understand it, excess seawater entry will cause ice to form. Also, they have a finite supply of warm water and methanol to inject to prevent ice.

[Statistical]

20. Yup seawater is actually the bigger problem not pumping.

too much seawater and the system freezing.

Even if they could make a perfect seal they wouldn't want to because slightly overpressure (oil leaking out) is better because it means water isn't leaking in.

[flamingdem]

4. 90% ? Try 10%. They cut the riser and doubled the flow and now capture 10%

Unless there is another step where they shut the valves, that works, this looks to have worsened the outflow.

[Statistical]

6. Anythng to back up the claim they doubled the flow? And that maximum capture rate will be 10%? n/t

[BeFree]

14. How much flow is there?

After 44 days you'd think they could tell us how much is flowing.

How much has been released and how much is now flowing?
Does anyone know? 10% of not knowing equals nothing, eh?

[Statistical]

16. No I don't expect BP to tell us. But Obama had a comission give us an estimate on flow.

12K to 19K bpd.
There is no reason they can't do another study and come up with new flow now that riser has been removed.

However not having data isn't "proof" that flow has doubled.

[Botany]

7. 90% was the figure that BP was trying to reach.

I still think putting Dick Cheney into the pipe is a good idea.

[bdamomma]

10. that is great idea, he sucks anyway.

[Robbien]

8. MSM is just touting the success

How GREAT IT IS, says MSM, the cap is successful.

[yella_dawg]

9. According to AP radio news, They hope to capture as much as 42,000 gal. a day.

That would be 1,000 bbl a day, or about 8% of the total flow according to some estimates of the leak rate.

[Statistical]

11. I think it is CURRENTLY capturing 1K bpd not that 1k is the hope or ultimate goal.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0410922820100604?type=marketsNews

BP Plc.'s containment cap over its stricken Gulf of Mexico well is collecting about 1,000 barrels per day, the top U.S. official overseeing the cleanup effort said on Friday.

...

One thousand barrels is a small fraction of the 19,000 barrels per day that the U.S. government has estimated could be gushing from the well, but the amount should increase as BP closes vents at the bottom of the cap to trap more oil, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen told reporters in a conference call.

------------------

Personally I doubt they will get 90%. Maybe they can get 75% though.

[yella_dawg]

15. I hope you're right.

But 75% may be optimistic. The captured natural gas and volatiles in the crude make pumping at the top problematic. The seal at the bottom has to resist the weight of a fluid column a mile high. And friction/turbulence in the pipe, which adds up over a mile. All with little or no help at the surface from pumps. I'm having a lot of trouble taking this seriously.

[bdamomma]

12. those pictures break my heart, they did not ask for this.