There was an interview this morning by John Roberts on CNN, talking to Owen Kratz, the CEO of Helix Energy Solutions, the company which has just provided a ship capable of processing 60,000 barrels per day. There are some problems with having the right hardware to make the connection, and that...
Seems like just a little extra steel between the underwater pontoons would do it. Then, of course, we would need a tugboat nearby to keep the rig from drifting off and snapping the riser.
Seems to me that the casing would break loose from the cement.
Young's modulus for steel is about 29 x 10**6 psi. If the cross-sectional area of the steel is about 10% of the entire pipe, 15,000 psi in the pipe will produce about 150,000 psi in the steel, which will stretch it about 0.5% (...
It seems that the likely failure of shear rams has been well known in the industry, and nobody cared to even order a bigger ram, which would solve the problem. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offshore_oil_spill_prevention#Blowout_preventer for the scoop.
My question is, why did the people...
Starting a new thread as suggested by Windward
DrillerNic, Thanks for your excellent information on the BOP Emergency Disconnect. The best I am able to find on the Internet is a drawing of the BOP linked at http://energy.gov/open/oilspilldata.htm. I'm surprised that BP doesn't make more of...
