BP oil leak

[Mr Fletcher]

i may live in the flat lands of cambridgeshire and do not have a phd in engineering but why can they not just squash the pipe with the use of hydraulics to stem the flow


answers on a postcard please

[woody]

I think the simple answer is because it is so far down its difficult to do anything at all

[Mr Fletcher]

I think the simple answer is because it is so far down its difficult to do anything at all

difficult agreed, impossible not an option . They must do training simulations to cover this sort of problem surely, its not like they cannot afford it .

[Stuart]

Why would they do that, and fix it, when they could put mud on it instead? Oh hang on, mud+water=sludge........oh that won't work. Bugger.

I only have GSCE's in the sciences and even I could have dreamt up a better solution to that issue than mud. Twats.

[drifter]

I'm not convinced you could crimp it enough to stem the flow. From what I understand there is a lot of pressure forcing the oil and gas out. I think the only time it will be capped properly is when the relief well is drilled and operational. Once the pressure is off they can stem any flow and concrete permanently.

The new LMRP cap will be a machined flanged joint from what I understand, even that won't seal it completely if works as expected.

Looks quite mundane really...

http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_interne ... tream.html

Even I laughed when I heard what the Topkill plan was, but it is a little more complicated than just mud which the media said it was. Having said that it was shite.

Unfortunately it would appear they rely on the one safety cut off valve. Maybe a backup would have been a good idea.

[Mr Fletcher]

They thought the Exxon Valdez was bad ,someone is going to get bent over proper over this .

[Daniel]

Why can't they use shit loads of straw to soak the oil up? okay i know it's an enormous project to under take, but it's better than just watchng it wash up everywhere? :/

[Safety_James]

Cue the insane rise in prices to cover the losses.. we will end up paying for it in the long run.

[Harry]

Tend to agree with Drifter on this, the main problem with crimping the pipe is that its construction has very thick walls that dont lend themselves to being deformed as in crimping.

I worked on some steam plant operating at 200bar cica 3,000 psi and at these pressures which I guess are lower than the gas/oil escape it simply isnt possible to change the shape of the pipework without applying massive pressures and heat, it is easier to cut the pipe than bend or crimp it.

They will need to get a second blowout valve in place and start reducing the pressure via a serries of reduction valves at the outlet to a point where a valve will finally cut the flow off

then again I drive a Scoobie so what do I know

[Rob_B]

prehaps we should lend them our mitre glue...the stuff will literally stick anything to anything...stu can vouch for us