Offshore staff
HOUSTON -- While BP continues to refine its ability to capture oil spilling at the Deepwater Horizon site in the Gulf of Mexico, there are additional plans in the making for future production. To date, the LMRP cap that is in place now has captured more oil in three days than the riser insertion tool captured over its application duration, reports Kent Well, BP Exploration senior vice president. The cap is capturing more than 11,000 b/d of oil, he says, and he expects that number to increase as experience in operating it increases.
The next move, Wells says, is a direct connection to the Q4000 via the top kill manifold. This is anticipated by mid-June. And that sets the stage for another system installation expected by the end of June. This system would have a sealing valve on top of the flowing well and would produce through a floating riser connection. This gives the operation some flexibility to stop operations in the event of a storm and then to return once the storm is passed to reconnect to the floating riser.
Wells also discussed what is visible from the ROV cameras at the seafloor. He says the LMRP cap is seldom visible within the flowing plume of gas and oil and that the application of dispersant at the flow opening causes the plume to billow rather than to have a consistent flow around the cap.
(Click here to download a PDF of the full technical report from BP.)
Schematic of how the Q4000 direct connection to the well flow would be accomplished.
This is a schematic of the longer term plans to have a system in place that could deal with the arrival of a storm in the Gulf during the time required to complete the relief well.
06/07/2010
