ScubaLouie

[frankc420]

I agree with you Frank. I don't trust what I've heard either, but like I said, I will be flying over it Friday so I am lucky enough I don't have to take someone elses word. I have a love for the ocean as well are I don't think I could have spend this long in it. As far as the clean up goes and light oil, anything heavy is what goes to bottom. Seawater is heavier than oil so the oil will stay on top. Our beaches and wildlife that live in southern marshes are most at danger along with any marine life that breathes air like dolphins that would have to get through it to get air. The Horizon was 25 miles south of my rig so looking at the map of where this slick is my rig should be in the middle of it.

When you head out if you have net on the rig please give us an update.  Pictures would be great too if you have a camera handy!

On the light oil vs heavy oil thing, I think what you said is what I meant LOL

[anthony5819]

Will do Frank.

[anthony5819]

I'm about 25 miles NNW of where the Horizon went down. I haven't seen any oil, looking at the maps before I flew out I figured we would be surrounded by oil. Obviously it's going farther east of me. I haven't seen a recent map.

[iroc4life]

Frank,
 Just to shed some light on what basically happened on the Horizon. They were in the process of cementing in the last string of casing in the well they had just drilled. They were not flowing back the well, the rig was there basically to punch a hole in the ground and find the oil, case it off, plug it with cement and move off location for another rig to come in and actually complete the well for flowing the oil. They had drilled to approx. 18,000 ft and set and cemented the casing (big pipe) in the well. At the top of this casing there is a seal which seals off the backside of the casing. They tested this seal and the cement seal to 10,000 psi. All good right. Then to finish up and move off location they had to displace the mud in the riser which is basically a 21" ID pipe that runs from the seafloor to the rig 5000' above the seafloor so they could move. This "riser" has a BOP (Blow Out Preventer) on the bottom of it that is used to seal off the well in the event of a blowout. It has a series of lets say valves in it, usually 2 to 3 sets that can shear or cut pipe and seal off the well. OK, back to what happened. In this riser they had 16+ PPG mud (Pound per gallon) which equates to 16x.052x18000= 15,000psi at 18,000'. OK so they take this mud out of the riser which reduces the pressure on the well by 16x.052x5000 = 4160 psi. That is when the well kicked or blew out or all hell broke loose. You know what happened next. But it all comes down to the seal on the casing, the cement or the outer seal i spoke of before or the BOP didnt work properly or they didnt have time to close it before it was on top of them. They underestimated the amount of pressure that was there and it kicked. I just hope they clean up this mess so I can dive when I get home I work on these rigs and I know the industry looks bad in the news but they/we are safer than this. Something major went wrong on that rig for this to happen. Thanks

[frankc420]

Thanks for the posts guys!

Talked to my uncle last night that is 'head driller' or something and he told me that he was told the PSI for that well was around 22,000.  He also told me if he was on that rig he would have been one of the 11 dead/missing.

Regardless of what happened, I'm with you 100%, I just hope they get it cleaned up!