BP: at the vanguard of leading-edge ultra deep oil exploration BSEE: it's absolutely safe to drill.
 

Five years after the nation's worst offshore oil spill, the industry is working on drilling even further into the risky depths beneath the Gulf of Mexico to tap massive deposits once thought unreachable. Opening this new frontier, miles below the bottom of the Gulf, requires engineering feats far beyond those used at BP's much shallower Macondo well.

BP PLC remains at the vanguard of ultra-deep exploration, and with its "Project 20K" it is developing the tools to handle the extremes of these deep reservoirs. The project's name is a reference to the 20,000 pounds of pressure per square inch the equipment must withstand.

5 Years After BP Spill, Drillers Push Into Riskier Depths - WSYX - Breaking News, Weather, and Traffic


Deepwater frontiers | About BP | BP Global

Operating in deepwater presents many challenges, including water depths ranging from 1,500 metres (4921ft) to over 3,000 metres (9842ft), ambient pressures of thousands of pounds per square inch (psi) and temperatures just above freezing.

Below the seabed, oil and gas can be found more than 10 kilometres (6 miles) deep under hard rock, thick salt and tightly packed sand, where temperatures can rise to 300 degrees Fahrenheit (148 degrees Celsius) and the pressure increases to 20,000 psi.

Massive production platforms and specially-designed systems and pipelines are required to extract and transport the oil and gas to shore. For example, the topside area of our Thunder Horse platform in the Gulf of Mexico is the size of three football fields. It contains equipment and systems capable of processing a quarter of a million barrels of oil equivalent per day from more than 20 wells. And design, testing and construction of the platforms required a new generation of technologies and subsea equipment.

Given all this is going on kilometres below the surface, in some cases with subsea equipment dealing with heavier crude oils, maintenance and monitoring of subsea production is also a massive challenge as subsea wells are often much further away from the host production facility.

For the past decade BP has been at the forefront of developing subsea technology to meet these challenges.


After explosion, tragedy turns Gulf oil rigs safer

"We believe absolutely that it is safe to drill these reservoirs," said Lars Herbst, the Gulf of Mexico regional director of the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the agency that oversees offshore drilling."

http://i.imgur.com/Jb6vnKS.jpg

the Thunder Horse platform was evacuated as a precaution preparing for Hurricane Dennis. Upon return to the platform on July 12 2005, it was found precariously listing 20 to 30 degrees; the lower deck of the platform was at sea level.


:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

What could possibly go wrong down there?

http://allaboutfunandgames.com/wp-co...board-game.jpg

About as safe as drilling a crack whore!

Drill baby drill!

I just saw on the news the other day there is a oil well in the Gulf which has been leaking since 2004. It went down in a hurricane and the sands covered over the well heads.

Supposedly it wasn't leaking much, but now they are claiming it's leaking a lot more than what the company & govt agencies have been claiming.

Collapsed Gulf oil platform has been leaking since 2004, investigation finds | NOLA.com

If they are so good at drilling why are they so bad at fixing their fuck ups? This one isn't even in that deep of water and they can't even stop it.

In the early/mid 70s I lived just outside of Halifax, Nova Scotia - and I still remember a hurricane that came up the coast and snapped an oil rig loose that was under construction in Halifax harbour. The timing of the hurricane was bad - high tide was coming in at the same time.

The rig headed towards one of the two bridges that connects Halifax to Dartmouth on the opposite side of the harbour. Bookies were taking bets whether the bridge would shear off the upper portion of the oil rig...or if the oil rig would collapse the bridge.

They managed to hook several massive tugboats onto the rig only a few hundred yards from the bridge and tow it back to the construction docks.

Not exactly oil spill related...but the OP reminded me of the incident back in the day.

"The Little Fish Foretelling the Future of Ocean Life Harmed by the Deepwater Horizon Disaster"


The Little Fish Foretelling the Future of Ocean Life Harmed by the Deepwater Horizon Disaster - Yahoo News


.