VIA ATS (abovetopsecret.com) _http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread567266/pg1
_http://pesn.com/2010/05/02/9501643_Mother_of_all_gushers_could_kill_Earths_oceans/
I think the meat of this article was the response by Paul Noel. Most of this is above my head.
Part of Paul Noel's comments:
Scary stuff to me. They don't have the technology for dealing with pressures this high.
[Moderator edit: Deactivated links]
_http://pesn.com/2010/05/02/9501643_Mother_of_all_gushers_could_kill_Earths_oceans/
I think the meat of this article was the response by Paul Noel. Most of this is above my head.
Part of Paul Noel's comments:
Controls That Should Have Been In Place
By the way, I am not against drilling it, I am just against doing so without proper controls.
1. The rig that was drilling was not a US Flagged rig. That means US Inspectors were not allowed on board the rig to inspect it. As a matter of National Security under the GATT the USA has a right to demand US Only in various technology. The USA should never allow a foreign flag vessel to drill for oil in the US Economic Zone (200 mile limit).
2. Acoustic automated shut of devices should be required.
3. I think US Federal Inspectors should have to be resident on and inspecting rigs like this 24/7.
4. I think that the drilling should be required to do some smaller holes that deliberately miss the main deposit that test the structure before main drilling operations happen.
5. Careful procedures should be in place to set up wells before they hit the main deposit. The well casing should have to be inserted well before the drill hits the deposit and it should have to be cemented in at least 2 weeks prior to finishing the hole down to the oil or gas. This is to give the cement time to set. The casing should have ridging to make this cement have a tight wedged grip on the miles of rock around it. This is required because the lift pressure on a pipe in this case could easily reach 20 million pounds of lift. This is an insane amount of up pressure. Even at 70,000 psi it would lift about 140 million pounds. (almost 64,000 long tons!)
Scary stuff to me. They don't have the technology for dealing with pressures this high.
[Moderator edit: Deactivated links]