The Chilean mine rescue continues with 4 men out.

I am sitting watching the rescue of the miners from the copper/gold mine in Chile. Four of the miners have been brought to the surface so far. These were some of the fittest of the men trapped, to make sure that if, in the early stages of the use of the travelling cage, that they could handle any mishaps. And after three rescue personnel rode the cage into the mine, it is now being lowered empty.

The event is being handled with some skill by the Chilean government, they had a camera feed from the bottom of the mine. Thus we saw the rescue cage arrive at the bottom of the mine, and the first of the rescue team get out to help with getting the men out. The trip down takes just over ten minutes, then the harness which the man in the cage wears (which carries an oxygen feed, and also can provide a support since it is hooked to the top of the cage) is removed and passed to the next man to be rescued. He is already wearing a coverall that was made to his measurements, and a jacket (given the move from the heat of the mine to the cold of the desert night at the surface). After donning the harness he is fitted into the cage, the door is closed, and the cage slowly lifted back into the shaft. (It is long enough that it does not come completely out at the bottom and at the top and bottom has spring-loaded wheels that roll on the walls as it moves up and down). It takes fifteen minutes to get to the top, and the rider has a headset so that he can talk to the surface crew while ascending.

So far there has been no glitches in the process, the President of Chile is on hand to greet the miners, and the second one out presented him with a rock from a bagful that he had brought out for the top folk present. And after greeting the dignitaries and a couple, at most, family members the rescued men lie on a gurney and are taken for medical examination. (The fourth man to ride to the surface had only been working in the mine for 5 days and was from Bolivia).

In the chat that the program hosts carry on to fill in the time that the cage is travelling, they talked about the debt that the world owes to miners. These men went on shift on August 5th, working in an old (over a hundred years old) and over-mined deposit and were trapped for 69 days. They are talking about changes that will come about as a result of this, but so often a month after the rescue, it fades into history without much change. Over a hundred years ago in Northern England virtually the entire male population of the mining village of Hartley were killed when the only shaft into the mine was blocked. Yet here this mine had only one effective exit. The second nominal exit, up a ventilation shaft, had no ladder all the way up, and so was not available, though the miners did try it to see if they could get out.

In this case the rescue was helped by the mining and drilling community from around the world. Three different machines were used to drill the holes for the rescue shaft. The speed with which it was done hides the complexity of the job that was achieved. Bear in mind that when the rescue began it was expected to take until Christmas.

There were only two T-130’s in Chile, (the machine that drilled the successful shaft) and there were only certain sized pipe sections available, and so it was a case of working out how to get it done with equipment that had never been used for this before. There were a couple of times when it seemed they might not be able to do it, there was a pause of some four days because of problems with the bit in trying to drill the hard rock, but they worked through it. And they were successful., even though they had to drill around the winding drilled hole that had been drilled first to intersect the rescue area. It required that they bring in the best crew that they could find, and that included flying one driller in from Afghanistan where he had been working drilling water wells. It is likely the most difficult job that they have faced, and this has largely gone unremarked in the media.

Given that the technology was successful there is some talk of developing a permanent set of equipment that can be moved to the site of any future mining disaster, and building on the lessons learned with this event, be better prepared to create access to anyone trapped. This sort of effort will continue to be necessary. Miners work at a considerable distance, normally, from the access shaft through which they enter and leave the mine. In most operations the area around the shaft is left un-mined so that it supports the shaft walls and holds their integrity. This was another safety precaution apparently abandoned in this instance. But it means that miners have to travel some distance to get to the working area, and when disaster strikes they may be a long way from that safe passage out.

Mining will thus remain a dangerous occupation, perhaps even more so in the future. For just as we are now seeing, as the ASPO conference last week noted, the approach of peak oil, so we are also approaching peak minerals. As with oil, the need for future supplies means that smaller and more difficult and dangerous deposits will be worked. In order to save on cost risks will be taken, and men will be trapped and die. It is, sadly, a price that the bulk of society seems quite willing to pay. Fortunately in this case that price does not have to be paid, but unfortunately in too many parts of the world it is still being paid on far too often a basis. And as the need for miners and the minerals and fuels that they produce continues to grow it is hard to see that situation changing much. The 1,500 journalists who are in the desert, without decent accommodation and amenities will soon leave, I would not be surprised, after a while, to hear that miners were back, working in much the same conditions as before. The world need and the money that it will be willing to pay will be incentive enough.

The Chilean Miners - nearing a rescue

The rate of progress in rescuing the miners from the copper mine in Chile continues to be better than expected. After the completion of the rescue shaft on Saturday, it was inspected, and the top 300 ft was considered to be possibly unstable and so has had to be lined with a metal casing. This is somewhat similar to that used in oilwells, except that it does not have to be water-tight and can be hung from the top, through a lip that extends outwards, again without need for a seal. This liner was inserted in 20 segments, and is only needed for the first 300-ft since a survey of the rest of the 2,300 ft long shaft has shown that the rock around it is solid, and does not need support.

Preparing the casing for the shaft

Schramm T-130

There were three different drills used to try and create the rescue shaft. The first of these, a Strata 950 was brought to the site on August 22nd, and drilled its own access bore, which would then be subsequently reamed to the necessary diameter for the rescue capsules. As a back-up a second drill, a Schramm T-130 was brought to the site at the beginning of September (the fourth) . In contrast with the first drill, which was drilling its own access borehole, this unit was set up to ream one of the existing boreholes (of which there were 3). By doing this, and reaming the hole in two stages, rather than just one, progress could be considerably faster . The initial diameter of the hole was 6 inches, this was first reamed out to 12-inches, and then to the final 26-inches. After set-up the benefit of the two-stage operation became evident early on, with the T-130 being able to ream the initial bore out to 12-inches by the 17th of September. Fifty days after the collapse of the mine tunnel, progress for what was now three different operations, was shown in this graphic.



Plan C, a drilling rig which is drilling a hole at full diameter from the beginning was set-up later, but has been making very good progress, and is being continued to provide a possible back-up in case something goes wrong with the initial shaft.

One of the concerns with the existing shaft is that, as a result of the way that the hole was drilled, it is not straight but has a number of curves in it. These are not severe, but could possibly cause a problem with the cage. By this morning the lining had been completed, and the infrastructure is being assembled over the shaft to be able to wind the cage in and out of the mine.

Moving the liner into place

It is now expected that the cage will be tested today to ensure that it can easily move up and down the shaft, and that the miners will be able to start being lifted out of the mine starting at 3 am Wednesday morning. And in a more recent story the cage has been reported as having been able to move down the shaft without any problems .

Of Chilean rescue progress, ASPO meetings and horses

The latest word from Chile is that the second of the three drills working to create an escape shaft for the miners may complete the wider passage within another 48 hours. The initial drill that was being used to drill an access hole, before reaming that to the required diameter has now been stopped, since although the initial hole is at 1,925 ft and about to break through with the smaller hole, it has had some problems with the drill, and with the other two drills so far ahead, is no longer considered necessary.

The second drill, once plan B, which is reaming its hole out to the desired diameter, is at a depth of 1,400 ft and is expected to reach the miner location by Thursday. Once the reaming is completed it is expected to take another two to six days to line the bore, before the men are brought out. There is, however, some debate as to whether the lining is necessary, given that without it the rescue could happen earlier. The President of Chile would like to have the men rescued before leaving for Europe, a trip currently planned for the 17th October.

The current back-up drill, originally plan C, which is drilling a single hole of the required size in a single pass, has reached a depth of 650 ft, but has to be repositioned to align with the intended target position down at the miner level

While I will post more on this story over the rest of the week, as the story unfolds, I will be travelling to Washington on Wednesday for the ASPO 2010 Peak Oil Conference which will take place from Thursday through Saturday. As has been my previous habit, I hope to be able to post some summaries of the different talks that I am able to attend (though giving a couple and moderating a session will limit which sessions I can cover). But it will restrict the posts that I can put up for the rest of the week.

I was planning on putting up a small story on the changes in France to re-introduce the horse, rather than relying on the more conventional garbage trucks. It took me back a number of years. Whether the idea is totally economically viable is not always certain, though on a limited scale I can imagine that it could be successful given the right location.

There are also other possible societal benefits. Growing up, as I did, in Northern England after the Second World War, there were a number of services that came via horse-drawn cart. Later some (milk being one) changed to where small electric-powered vans were used instead, but the clop of the horse’s hooves down the street would often be enough to get the kids in the house out into the street. (The manure was also prized as a good fertilizer for the garden, particularly roses, though it contained a lot of weed seed).

In the interim they have become a common sight as a way for tourists to get around the scenic parts of many cities. And along the way methods have developed for keeping the cities cleaner than the horses left them when they were more commonly used. That would provide a basis from which they could again expand their usefulness.

This is not a horse diaper (from Ben and Alonna)

However, while the French are hailing this as an innovative idea, it should be noted that in Israel it was only last November that the Mayor of Tel Aviv yielded to pressure and banned the use of horse drawn carts in the city. And in other parts of the world where horse drawn vehicles remain a common method of haulage and transport, the conditions of the horses can still give rise to concern, as for example, in Mumbai.

There are lots of little trails I fancied wandering down in writing a post about this, but unfortunately have run out of time, so I will leave you to conjecture. Remember that in some places animals are required to wear diapers Though it is also reported that these can cause some additional traffic problems.

Faster drilling in Chile

Someone recently told me that after you had been retired a while, you wondered how you ever found time for work. Given that this is the week of my Retirement celebration (a little after the event) I am likely going to be somewhat pre-occupied for most of it, so my apologies if posts appear a bit slower than usual and are shorter.

They are not going quite that slow in Chile, where the miners are now waiting as the three drills now work to enlarge the passages down to the rescue chamber. One of them achieved a rate of advance of 150 ft on Monday this week, and may have gone 243 ft on Tuesday. So that the reamed hole is now 984 ft long. But there are problems with pushing the drills too hard – not the least of this is that you can generate enough torque in the pipe that any sudden release can spin up the head with enough energy that it snaps the pipe. So it is better to be a little slower and make sure that things go according to plan. There is currently also about 15 days of work to be done on the surface, to put all the equipment in place that will be needed, to get all the miners out.

After the holes have been completed, over their full length, the rescuers will line the passage with a steel mesh, and then they will be able to lower the cage, that has now arrived at the site. Before that can be done the cage has to be mounted to a frame, and attached to cables, in such a way as to allow it be raised and lowered safely. That construction is apparently what is going to take the 15 days.

There is a considerable difference in the progress of the three tools, the first one to start turns out to be the slowest, and has not reached the miners with the first hole yet. The second used a pre-existing borehole to give it a start (the T-130) while the oilwell drill is drilling the full sized hole in one pass.

The government said the Strata 950 "Plan A" drill reached 1,667 feet (508 meters) Tuesday morning. Once it breaks through to 2,306 feet (703 meters), this drill will need to start over again, widening the hole to its final diameter of 28 inches (70 centimeters) so that the metal sleeve and escape capsule can pass through.

The other two drills are already carving out holes this wide, and making quick progress: the T-130 "Plan B" drill reached nearly halfway to its 2,047-foot (620-meter) goal Tuesday evening, Sougarret said. The "Plan C" Rig 421 oil well drill has carved out 361 feet (110 meters) of its 1,959-foot (597 meter) goal.

The intention once the holes are lined, and the cage able to move up and down it, is first to send down a medic and a trained rescue specialist, who will check on the men’s condition and then help get them to the surface. With the food (about 2,200 calories) that the men are getting they have regained some body mass after the initial starvation. The cages are being called Phoenix, and come with an oxygen supply to help over what could be up to an hour of transit time to the surface.

It is encouraging that progress continues to be ahead of schedule, so that there is a hope that the rescue could be completed some time in October.
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The Gulf and Chile - two quick updates

A couple of quick updates. Firstly Admiral Allen has now announced that the relief well intersected the original well late last night:

Through a combination of sensors embedded in the drilling equipment and sophisticated instrumentation that is capable of sensing distance to the well casing, BP engineers and the federal science team have concluded that the Development Driller III relief well has intersected the Macondo well. This determination was made based on a loss of drilling fluids that indicated communication had been established beyond the relief well, the pressure exerted against the drill bit as it came in contact with the well casing and, finally, an increase in pressure in the choke line of the Macondo well blow out preventer. While each of these indicators taken separately would not necessarily be conclusive, the aggregate data available supports the conclusion that the two wells are joined. It is also important to note that none of the measurements supported a scenario where the annulus of the well is in communication with the reservoir. Accordingly, we intend to proceed with preparation to cement the annulus and complete the bottom kill of the well.

Secondly the drill that had almost reamed the borehole down to the miners now has reached them. Because this particular borehole is a multi-stage ream, and the intersection was with a larger bit, apparently they may be able to assemble the next reaming stage at the bottom of the hole, and then back-ream it upwards. This, if true, is a much better way of doing things, since the larger hole makes it less likely that the chips from the cutting process will block the downward passage.

The machine is creating a conduit about 30 centimeters (12 inches) in diameter and when it reaches the mine gallery where the miners are, 700 meters below ground, a new drill bit will be installed on there and as it is drawn back up to the surface it will widen the conduit to about 65 cm (26 inches) so that a capsule can be sent down to the miners that will be used to extract them one by one.

Deepwater Oil Spill - patiently waiting, Chilean drilling, and coal in Europe

Well, although the Admiral said that the intersection of the relief well with the Deepwater Horizon well would occur within 24-hours of his last press conference, and we are now past that, there has, as yet, been no word of the current status. BP noted that at 11:30 am on Thursday morning (Central) that DDII, who has the BOP on the failed well, has pulled its diagnostic tools from the well, until the interception is completed. Now the nature of those tools has not been explained, they were, if my memory serves, looking to fish out the dropped drill pipe that had been held by the shear rams in the original BOP. However, it isn’t clear whether even that operation had been completed. Remember also that if the drill pipe is sitting on the cement rather than in it (a function of when it fell), there is not likely to be enough space for any tools to get down to do anything inside the casing (such as perforate it to create a circulation path).

While the BP site notes that the DDIII – which is drilling the relief well – is conducting a ranging run, one should remember the Admiral noting that with the new method they are using they can do the ranging without pulling the drill string back the way that they had to do when they were further away. (It should also be noted that it would not be unheard off for the drill to miss on the first attempt).

It could also be that the well has been intersected, but that the condition of the wall of the well has created an unexpected problem (bear in mind that the relief well is trying to drill into the open hole section of the well, where there is no casing or cement liner on the wall, and the production casing is likely set away from the well wall.)

There are a number of things that can be postulated, we will just have to wait for some official word before we can find out what is happening. Even the ROV camera feeds can find nothing more interesting to show than poking the new BOP with a rubber hose.

Apparently I was wrong in my understanding of what is going on with the rescue of the Chilean miners. I had interpreted the intersection of a drill with a rock bolt as meaning that one of the smaller bores, similar to that which found the miners, had been drilling another small access hole for sending down supplies (such as the empanadas and steaks they will get this weekend to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the country).

However it turns out that there are a couple of other large drilling units on site that are now trying to reach the trapped miners. The one that had the broken bit that took a week to fish from the hole, is being drilled using a T-130 drill, which is reaming one of the supply holes already drilled from 5-inches to 12-inches. That step in the process should be perhaps completed by this weekend, but then the shaft will have to be widened in a second step out to the 28-inch diameter that the miners need to get out.

Reaming the hole in two stages has some advantages, since it does not force the large volumes of debris down the small initial hole,, where larger fragments might jam and stop the advance. The drill is already at the 1,640 ft mark, out of the 2,067 ft needed to reach the miners. The Strata 950 has only reached 1,050 ft.

Meanwhile a third option, using a oil platform drilling rig (Rig 422) has arrived and been set-up. It might be possible for this to drill a larger hole faster, and it is being located so that it has to drill a slightly shorter distance (1,958 ft) to reach the refuge. It can drill at between 65 and 130 ft a day. Apparently the roads over which the parts had to be carried were so bad that several of the haulage trucks arrived on site with flat tires.

And it is worthy of note that the European Union has decided that the last coal mine in Hungary will have to close at the end of this year. Since the mine feeds a local 240 MW power plant, which will immediately begin disassembly, this has implications for both the heating of the community this winter, and for future local unemployment. The argument has been made that because coal mining is subsidized (it used to be in the UK, that coal was subsidized, in part to keep the miners in employment, after the mines were closed unemployment in those regions of the UK was very high for a significant number of years). The mine is currently burning biomass with the coal, in order to reduce pollution, but that is no longer a sufficient justification for its continued operation. It supplies 5% of the energy used in Hungary.

This should be contrasted with plans in the UK to build a new 1.6 GW coal-fired power station at Hunterston in Ayrshire. It is a plan that has led to strong opposition but in all these debates, it is not clear if the reality of alternate supplies at the levels needed has been adequately considered. Given the strong objections from some locals over the siting of wind farms in South-West Scotland (farms it is actually difficult to see, as I have found), one wonders what source of magical power is expected to replace the diminishing contributions from North Sea oil and gas.

Deepwater Oil Spill - nearing intersection, hurricanes, the TWIP and gold

Progress on the Deepwater Horizon well is going well enough that the Admiral considers it likely that the remaining work (other than plug and abandon) may be completed within the next four days.

just to summarize again, in the last 24-hour period we proceeded to go ahead and drill to the intercept. At the time we started drilling we estimated that we were 3.5 horizontal feet away and 50 feet away from the intercept. We drilled down (inaudible), we went through the drill string, we put in a ranging tool just to make sure that we wanted to calibrate what the ranging tool told us versus the equipment that now allows us to do some ranging measurements from inside the drill bit.

The drill string is now packed and it’s commenced drilling so the air at this moment as we’re speaking drilling that last 20/25 feet and they are almost touching the well at this time. That’s the report I got just before I came out here. When we do the intercept, which will be imminently I will say in the next 24 hours because they may elect to pull that drill bit back do another ranging run, which would add time. That’s the reason I’m not going to say it’s going to happen in the next hour.

Sometime in the next 24-hour period, we should do the well intercept. Once the well is intercepted, we’ll have to understand from the pressure differentials and the drilling fluids the nature of the annulus. Once that’s been determined decision, will be made on cement and then once it’s cemented the cement will have to adhere and be pressure tested.

That entire element from this morning I would estimate to be about 96 hours.

It is good that the remaining critical work will be done in this time. Right at the moment there are two Category Four hurricanes in the Atlantic (something that hasn’t happened since 1926). While both of those are likely to head North up the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Karl may turn into a Hurricane after it crosses the Yucatan, which may be some cause for concern because, when it re-enters the Gulf, it will be quite close to the offshore Mexican wells, where over 2 mbd is produced.

The possibility that global warming is causing an increase in hurricane intensity, if not overall numbers, is something that climate scientists continue to debate, but the possibility of another series of hurricanes of the likes of Katrina and Rita clobbering the oil supply/distribution network, regardless of cause, is something that the EIA has to consider, and that is the topic of the front page of the TWIP, this week. The EIA is introducing a Hurricane page, which will, on a hurricane specific basis, show the projected path of the hurricane, and the facilities that might be at risk.


As an example, they showed this illustration from the recent path of hurricane Earl ( a larger version is available here

And speaking of the state of the refineries, with the driving season over, inputs to the refineries have fallen, with most of the drop coming from imports, domestic production even had a slight uptick.


Gasoline production remains constant for the moment:


Although demand has begun its seasonal fall.


Fuel ethanol production continues to rise,


Some of that increased production is going into rebuilding stocks, which had been falling until recently.

Distillate demand is also rising seasonally, and is significantly ahead of where it was last year.


Speaking of things rising, I note the record price for gold on Tuesday, though it has since fallen a little. But it may show what happens when a product that is in demand, passes beyond the point of peak production.

And finally, speaking of mining metals, it appears that the trapped miners in Chile, will have a lot of job offers when they get out safely. We can only hope that this comes sooner rather than later.

Deepwater Oil Spill - approaching the well, and the birth of Hope

With very little change since yesterday in the situation in the Gulf, it may be time to start spreading these reviews out a little more, of if the well is intersected this week, to consider moving to more general topics. The DDIII drilled 30 of the remaining 50 ft between the relief well and the original Deepwater Horizon well on Monday. The drill was then retracted to make a ranging run, and once that is completed, one can assume that they might just go ahead and do the intersection on the next drilling pass.

That will begin to generate the next set of answers to remaining questions about the well condition, and what happened when the well blew out. At the same time

The DDII continues to conduct diagnostic tests on the MC252 well, and final plugging and abandonment procedures are being worked through the approval process.

One wonders how long the approvals will take?

In regard to the progress down in Chile, there is a little confusion about the nature of all the holes that are being drilled. Apparently there are more of the smaller access holes (6-inch diameter) still being drilled as well as the larger hole that will then be reamed to the size that will carry the men out in a special cage. One of the smaller drills apparently broke a bit when it encountered a roof bolt as it approached the underground mine opening. To clear the way forward, the fragments of the old bit had to be removed from the hole using a magnetic fishing tool, before the drill could be restarted, It apparently took a week.

The President of Chile has also made another decision:

Mr. Piñera said he ruled out as too dangerous another rescue proposal involving blasting a hole in the mountain with dynamite. He understands that some would like to see faster progress, he says, but it is arduous work: "It's a very hard rock."

Since there is already a tunnel part of the way down, the excavation would only involve the section that had collapsed, but that is easier for me to say, than for miners there to do. One of the miners became a father today, and they called the baby Hope, or Esperanza.

Deepwater Oil Spill - the relief well restarts, and miners watch TV

Admiral Allen issued a statement today, in regard to the situation at the Deepwater Horizon well:

After extensive consultation between BP engineers and the federal science team, as well as reviewing data collected from measurements I authorized Friday, the Development Driller III today began the final steps towards the completion of the relief well that will intercept the Macondo 252 well and perform the bottom kill procedure.

This accelerated progress was possible after several discussions between BP and the federal scientists and engineers, leading to the installation of a lock-down device over the weekend, which resulted in the necessary conditions to commence the finalization of the relief well. I will continue to provide updates on the progress of the relief well, the final step that will ensure the well is fully and finally killed, as necessary.

Following this BP announced that relief well operations re-started.

BP re-started relief well drilling operations from the Development Driller III (DD3) today at 1:40 p.m. CDT following the successful installation of a lock down sleeve, a mechanical device that secures the MC252 well's casing hangar.

The lock-down sleeve was installed on Saturday, and successfully tested – though I am not quite sure what that would entail, since it is a bit like putting a locking nut above the retaining nut on a bolt, it stops the retaining nut from moving – but how to test?

The DDII is continuing to run diagnostic tests on the original well, as the relief well slowly drills forward, over the last 50 ft to make the intersection. Remember that with the very small target (the unlined section of the borehole annulus) the intent is to drill a short distance, re-survey the location and that of the well (determined from an electro-magnetic field generated in the production casing) to make sure that the well is moving on target, and then drill a little bit more. It will still take some time, perhaps four days, to get to the well, and then the circulation of fluid to determine what is really in the annulus will be one of the last stages, before the well is plugged with cement at the bottom, to fill the annulus above the current levels and provide no potential flow path from the reservoir.

Once that is completed, then the relief well can be also plugged both at the bottom and then at the top, and both wells can start the process of inserting plugs close to the seabed and then removing the wellheads and going through the process of abandoning the wells.

In regard to the miners trapped in Chile, it has now been reported that it may take as long as 3 hours for each miner to be lifted to the surface, which may make the process last some four days.

The miners have been sent a small tv set, through one of the three 6-inch diameter supply holes already in place, and are now being sent electricity as well as cooler fresh air, to help with the environmental conditions, which are otherwise very hot (88 degF) and humid (85%). And by using U/V lights they are apparently also setting up a day/night cycle for them.

Sadly the mine is reported to be broke.

sanctions may be hard to enforce. The mining company has filed papers to declare bankruptcy. The company also says it can't pay anything for the rescue effort, not even the wages owed to its miners.

I do remain concerned about water flows underground over that length of time, unless they have some alternate way of getting the water out of the mine, since I presume that the rock falls stopped any pumping operations that were ongoing. For example:

Morning showers require the men to climb aboard a bulldozer-type mining vehicle that rumbles 300 metres up the tunnel to a natural waterfall where they shower, shampoo and clean off the ubiquitous rust-coloured mud.

There is also another two sets of problems, evident from what is generally considered good practice. The first comes from the rescue effort itself:

Another group of men reinforce the mine walls and divert streams of water seeping into their refuge. Several of the drilling and communications tubes connecting the men to the surface use water as lubricant, meaning a constant stream of muddy gunk trickles into their world.

And then there are the other water needs, that are also provided.

After the (Chilean:Ukraine football) match was over, the men prepared to sleep. They walked down the ramp to the bathroom, an area kept constantly clean by a stream of fresh water that washes away the urine and faeces.

All that water has to be going somewhere.

They do monitor the gas content of the air around the refuge, and are preparing for when the big drill first breaks through to the mine with the pilot drill. That is now expected to happen in about 3 weeks, and then the miners will have to start removing the debris from the larger reaming bit as it moves down, enlarging the hole to the required size for the rescue cage. It could be as much as a thousand pounds of rock an hour, though the rates will hopefully and likely be kept slow enough that there is no risk of the pilot hole being jammed with too large pieces of rock.

Deepwater Oil Spill - preparing to move

The annotations to the ROV feeds from BP are becoming a little more descriptive, particularly with those related to the Q4000, which will be playing a significant part in the replacement of the blowout preventer (BOP) on the Deepwater Horizon well. However, at 9 pm on the 1st, with the waves still a little higher than desired, the activity has yet to start.

One of the new camera feeds that is being displayed is a weight indicator on the deck of the Q4000. This is not yet on line, but Admiral Allen pointed out on Wednesday the loads that will come onto the vessel.

We anticipate removing the blowout preventer with the latching mechanism that will be attached to a drill pipe string that will be suspended from the Q4000. . . . . . .

The combined weight of the drill string, the latching mechanism and the blowout preventer itself is approximately a million pounds. When they released that blowout preventer from the well it will be suspended at about 5000 feet below the surface.

There are two things we’re concerned about when this occurs, number one is the wave height. You can imagine the Q4000 riding up and down on the waves. When they ride up it exerts more dynamic loading on that pipe system. So we’re concerned about the weight and the ability of the pipe system to handle that.

Before the BOP itself is removed, the capping stack has to be taken off. The latching mechanism to attach to that is already down underwater, and is being monitored by the Enterpise, through ROV2. The stack will come off first, and it is that activity which is now expected to start at noon on Thursday.

Once the Q4000 latches onto the original BOP it is going to raise it up, through the platform of the vessel, and then set it back down on that deck. There are two additional static cameras on the Q4000 which are monitoring the moon pool, and which are presumably going to be carrying all this activity starting tomorrow and running perhaps 36 hours, depending on the weather and how easily the BOP assembly breaks away from the well.

As soon as the Q4000 has the BOP on board, it has to move out of the way (and trans-ship the parts of the BOP, once separated to smaller ships to be sent ashore) so that the new BOP can be put in place.

This is the task for Development Driller 2, but before the job is finished the BOP has to be thoroughly tested to ensure that everything is now functional, the BOP will then be ready for the final stages. At this point it will be possible to restart the relief well to complete the bottom kill. That is still not anticipated to start until after Labor Day.

I am going to insert the quote on what the Admiral said on hydrates it its entirety, since I am not sure exactly what his point was.

Hello, Admiral. Can you tell me how the current BOP is attached to the well head and if there’s any concern about hydrates or other (inaudible) that might make it difficult to latch?

Thad Allen: Well, the current BOP is attached to the wellhead with the same connector they would use for any similar drilling well. To the extent that hydrates are there, we don’t expect that to be a problem right now. Had we continued to try and fish and get the pipe out of there, there was some concerns that hydrates would be blocking our ability to use a camera and actually operate down there. So I’m not sure that’s an issue. If there’s an issue at all, it’s probably the issue of the condition of the wellhead itself. When the Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank it bent the riser pipe over and ultimately the riser pipe was severed from the drill rig. At that point, if you can imagine, as massive as the blowout preventer was and that wellhead was, it probably bent over to some extent and then when the riser pipe separated from the rig it popped back up. It did not pop straight back up and there’s been some attempt to level that, to make sure we could get that as close to vertical as we can. I believe the current estimate right now, it is about two degrees off center line. So as we go in to pull the blow out preventer out, I would say hydrates are not a real big concern. I think the alignment to the true vertical about two degrees off would impact somehow to a very small degree the pull on the BOP as you’re trying to free it. We are aware of it. The engineers have taken that into account. We don’t think it will be a prohibiting condition, but it is something we are aware of.


In the other story that I have been watching, that of the miners in Chile, the equipment has started, and the preliminary drilling of the central shaft is now down more that 20 m. At the same time the rescuers are considering ways of reaming one of the smaller drill holes that have already reached the area. This might take a greater number of stages to get the hole out to the required size, but could, in total, be faster than the two-stage operation that is currently in progress. In either case moving the muck from the bottom of the excavation with wheelbarrows, and ensuring that none of it gets stuck as it falls from the machine, are both concerns that will have to be addressed as the work moves forward.

Deepwater Oil Spill - More questions than answers

Hmm! So what is going on at the well? On Tuesday evening there were a couple of posts in the comments at TOD, one of which showed oil leaking past the shear rams in a BOP, as a Youtube segment, (H/t TOB ) while the second was a short clip showing the shear opening (H/t Chuck Schick ) . Because of the bandwidths involved I am just going to take a couple of frames from them to show the situation. This is from the Youtube segment:


This is a different shot from the one shown in a loop by Chuck which includes this frame:


And then there was the ejection of what appeared to be mud from the stack at about 12:41 pm that (H/t MoonofA) is also on Youtube.



Which leaves one wondering what is going on? Did the DP fall and rupture the casing and this is flow from the annulus? Has the seal at the top of the annulus lost its integrity? Is this oil, gas or some combination – since mud alone would be denser than seawater and should sit in the well without a problem, given the testing that was done at the end of last week. Is this perhaps some residual fluid in one of the lines that was being flushed out, and if so which one?

There are (and I am writing this around 10 pm Central) it seems two borehole cameras. The official one, which is swinging in free water it appears at the moment, and that from the BOA Sub C ROV1, which is the feed that is showing the ram blades and the flow. Unfortunately (unlike the main ROV cameras) this is not date stamped, so that when I just went back for a check the view is relatively quiet with no flow and the valve open – so this may have been another unwarranted alarm. But it would be nice if, perhaps, the Admiral could explain this. (At the moment the listing of the Transcript of the press conference for Aug 24th reverts through a link to the Transcript from the 23rd).

In regard to the events in Chile, now is not the time to talk much about the rising price of metals and other minerals that come from underground – their depletion and the problems they cause are more the subject of the more conventional posts that we write at this site – but I did note the comment on the price rise of copper which has gone from $1.835 to $3.234 per pound in the last year.

More small diameter drill shafts are being sunk, so that there is communication down one, supplies down a second and a third, soon to be completed, will be for ventilation. The large drill that will drill the rescue shaft is now on site and is being set-up to start the hole.

For those who have not seen the layout, ( H/t Ericy this shows the relative position of the refuge and the slope that was the main access to the underground.


You will notice that there are a few more turns than the simple spiral that some of the networks have been showing.

Deepwater Oil Spill - Fishing and Quecreek equipment

There has not been a lot of visible progress at the Deepwater site today. As might be anticipated when BP are trying to extract the three segments of pipe that Admiral Allen commented had been found above the Blowout Preventer (BOP) and in the rams.

To tell you what we found there, there are basically three sections of pipe. There was a section of pipe that is suspended in the middle on the center line that we believe goes down below the blowout preventer into the well some distance. There is a shorter piece of pipe that is sitting beside that pipe in the blowout preventer that was broken or cut about the length of the blowout preventer itself. And then there's a very small piece of pipe laying crosswise.

We believe these pipes are where they're at as a result of the diamond wire cut that we attempted on the riser pipe and then the final shear cut that we did. And we know which cuts were where, because one pipe has a very clean cut, indicating that – that was cut by the diamond wire saw. And the other one is compressed and cut, which would indicate that was cut by the shears that we used.

So we have a good idea of where the pipes are at and where they're located. We're now conducting diagnostics inside the BOP and the capping stack to ascertain the best way to remove the pipes.

Given the need for the procedures to be conceived, written up, approved and then followed, it may be a little time before the pipe segments get removed. This is particularly true if the ram closures that I noted in the last post have yet to be fixed.

The Admiral does not seem concerned with the possibility that if they get hold of the long length of drill pipe that is held in the grip of the rams in the BOP that it will shear when the holding rams are released. This suggests perhaps that they may know (from the scans made of the BOP back near the beginning of this episode) what the pipe looks like, and do not expect that it has been materially cut by the shear blades. (Since it is that cut that would be needed as a starting crack, to help initiate separation of the pipe at the cut, and since it has not failed yet, they may assume that it has sufficient integrity to hold up during the removal process).

Nevertheless he is not concerned that if the pipe were to fall down the well, that it would do much damage to the cement plug at the bottom of the well. He was asked that specific question at the press conference, and replied:

I don't believe so. (It'll fall down) into the well to the extent that it could, and as long as it wasn't protruding above the wellhead, would actually not become an obstacle to removing the blowout preventer. But I think, for forensic purposes, they would like to have that pipe so they can examine it.

He does not, thus, anticipate that it would do much damage to the bottom of the well, even if it fell and hit the top of the cement plug, given its length and that it is surrounded by the production casing and, over an unknown length, by an external cement liner filling the annulus to the surrounding rock.

At present the down-hole camera is not working, the stack seems to have been left open with the BOA Sub C Rov1 monitoring it to see if there are any returns, and the drill rod is swinging freely in the water.

Screen capture from ROV1

In regard to the situation of the Chilean miners, a special drill is being brought to the site from elsewhere in Chile, and in fact may be there by now. The drill that will be used is likely of this size:

Drill bit used at Quecreek

The picture is from the Quecreek rescue operation. However that was a relatively shallow coal mine, with softer rock, and so they are apparently going to use a bit with polycrystalline diamond compact teeth which will allow them to cut through the harder rock. The penetration rate is expected to be about 65 ft a day, though some of the rock from the video shown of the existing borehole passage, seemed to be broken, and that will make drilling that much more difficult.

The refuge is on the side of a spiral tunnel or slope, that rotated around the ore body as it traversed lower, and in the higher regions of the mine, this was closed by a rock collapse. It appears to have been the only access to the deeper parts of the mine. In many countries there has to be a second way out, brought about after the Hartley Mining Disaster in the UK in 1862, when 199 miners died because the only shaft into the mine was blocked. (The first school I went to was at New Hartley, when my Dad was manager there).

Once the shaft has been sunk, then a small cage will be lowered to bring the miners to the surface, one at a time. The cage is obviously of small diameter:

The rescue cage at Quecreek.

Small as it is it held each of the miners and brought them to safety.

Rescued miner being brought out of the Quecreek Mine.

Let us hope that the miners in Chile are similarly all safely recovered.

Meanwhile, looking at other natural hazards, there have been about half-a-dozen 3.0 or greater earthquakes in the Loki area of Iceland in the last few days, and just when it appears that we will dodge the Hurricane bullet of Danielle, the next one seems to be forming behind it.