June 14/2010 12:27 PM EST.
By : Isaac N.
What many who are calling for the removal of British Petroleum and the other rigs from the deep-water Macondo have failed to take into account the following. There still many wells operating in the area of the Macondo. If they were to all stop, the pressures underground will go to the Horizon sub-floor area, due to the salt formations in the Sigsbee escarpment. If all 105 boreholes drilled into the Macondo region were to cease operations, the sub-strata flow paths would alter rapidly. They may have already.
After all, fluids under pressure follow the path of least resistance.
What exactly is the problem ? Horizon's borehole drilled the Macondo Project. which is not a sub-salt prospect as are other deep-water wells but actually in between allochthonous salt bodies that have not formed a continuous canopy like what exists further west.
An oil prospect in this area is called a Gumbo Zone.
Gumbo Zone is the name given in the Gulf of Mexico to the structural disrupted zone, directly under allochthonous salt, which works as a permeability pathway. Fluid flushing through this zone develops hyper-pressures, in the section immediately below the salt, which create big problems during drilling. The Allochthonous salt layer is overlying part of its overburden, which is a sheet like salt body tectonically emplaced at stratigraphic levels overlying the Autochthonous salt layer. Also, notice the map below, showing the actual representations of the Sigsbee layer in relation to the distance from the deeper sub-strata layers. This is the reason there are so many studies of underwater volcanoes in the Gulf of Mexico. They are playing with pressures that they have only the slightest comprehensions of. They are 35,050' deep.That's 6.6382575 miles too close to underground lava flow.
" These wells have the potential of an uncontrolled release of hydrocarbons to the environment."
That's a quote and link to an MMS report about a deep-water blowout.
The real relief wells are the ones still operating in the deep-water Macondo area.......
Here are just the BP wells still running in the deep-water Macondo area, as of 06-02-2010 08:43:16 AM
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 28 TB001 1,853
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 28 TB002 1,853
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 28 TB003 1,853
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 28 TB004 1,853
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 28 TB005 1,853
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 28 TB006 1,853
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 764 004 3,283
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 85 SS002 5,173
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 129 SS003 5,317
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 84 SS001 5,418
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 777 TB002 5,609
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 777 TB001 5,610
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 778 TF001 5,631
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 776 TC002 5,638
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 775 001 5,673
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 383 K001 5,735
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 383 K002 5,739
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 778 TA003 6,033
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 778 TA005 6,033
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 778 TA002 6,034
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 778 TA004 6,035
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 429 A004 6,101
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 429 A003 6,134
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 429 A001 6,240
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 608 EA002 6,623
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 520 H001 6,738
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 520 HH002 6,741
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 522 F003 6,932
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 522 F006 6,933
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 522 F004 6,934
BP Exploration & Production Inc. MC 522 F002 6,940
Source :
http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/offshore/deepwatr/dpstruct.html
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