Geography 2152F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Drilling Fluid, Wellhead, Corexit
20 Jan 2018
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Document Summary
Depth for deep water: 1000 - 4999 feet. The seafloor falls off the gently sloping continental shelf into jumbled basin and range like terrain, with deep canyons, ocean ridges and active mud volcanoes 500 feet high. Deposits lie deeply buried beneath layers of shifting salt prone to undersea earthquakes. Early problems: drill pipe got stuck and so did a tool in borehole causing drillers to back out and drill around the obstruction. Urgency: 6 weeks behind schedule, cost bp . 5m per day: describe the specific incident that occurred on april 20, 2010 which led to the explosion. Gas bubble infiltrated casing probs through gap in cement. Bp has chosen to drill the fastest way possible known a long string , places strings of casing pipe btw oil reservoir and the wellhead. The lockdown sleeve hadn"t been installed when the. Prevented to circulate heavy drilling mud outside the casing before cementing.
