The Ursa-Princess waterflood project.

   Waterflooding is a method of secondary recovery in which water is injected into the reservoir formation to displace additional oil. The water from injection wells re-pressurizes the formation and physically sweeps the displaced oil to adjacent production wells.


It is also called enhanced oil recovery, and is most often done these days with various expanding sub-micron polymers, made by several companies around the world, the NALCO subsidary TIORCO/STEPAN being the primary producers. The polymers are manufactured out the by-products produced in the refining of oil, and injected back into the natural pathways underground, and there are actually foams, gels, rubbers, and expanding nano-plastics, each engineered to preform a different action. They all take 6-9 months to work. In the case of this project, I do not believe this process has been used, however, given the effectiveness of polymer well-flooding...it's the most effective method for enhanced oil recovery.... I have my doubts.

  (There is much more info at the top of the page, under the topic of  " Enhanced Oil Recovery and ...")

So the Ursa-Princess waterflood is located in the Mississippi Canyon,.. location of the Horizon blowout.
   100 miles off the coast (1)

Ursa's portion located in blocks 808, 809, 810, 852, 853 and 854 in 3800 feet.

Princess is in Mississippi Canyon blocks 765 and 766, in about 3650 feet of water.

    Horizon is located in block 252, Mississippi canyon, Macondo field. At the time of the accident, it was located at 52 miles southeast of the Louisiana port of Venice. The rig sank into water after the event and is currently lying over the sea floor, around 1,500ft northwest of the well centre and away from subsea
pipelines. (4)

Water for injecting has been treated, supposedly. Treatment process is as follows :

1: Sea Water is chlorinated.
2: Oxygen is removed.
3: Sulfate-reducting Bacteria is filtered.

   The sea water is treated to kill as many Sulfate-reducing bacteria as possible. Oxygen is removed in order to create an environment where they can not live. This is done to prevent the well from becoming sour (indicating the presence of hydrogen sulfide gas) (1)

.....however, given the amount that the oil companies actually know about microbiology, and the obvious disregard for accepting responsibility for their actions in the natural world, it's obvious they lie, is what I'm saying, lol.

  Communities of microbes that permeate the ground all live in harmonious function with each other, just like all natural systems. Cyclical feeding colonies are easily knocked out-of-whack. When you alter the environment in any area, you alter the proliferation rates of other organisms in the area due to a massive change in how they function together. You know this if you have read my previous posts...or, you might have already known that before you read my posts. So it's a given that microbiological hydrocarbon fractionation processes would be radically altered too. Alter the community...and you alter the total products and processes within.

...back on track here.....The Ursa-Princess waterflood.

  The first injection of water in the Ursa/Princess Waterflood project occurred on 3 July, and is planned to continue for the next 30 years.3 sub-sea sites—one to an existing well site northwest of the Ursa Tension Leg Platform (TLP), one to an existing well site southeast of the Ursa TLP and one to a new well site northeast of the Ursa TLP. Producing wells will include three Princess sub-sea wells and as many as six Ursa TLP wells.(1)
            "...and as many as six Ursa TLP wells   "

   Sounds like they don't really know the extent of the effects of this water-flood project....which means they don't know the range of the effects either.......

    They use very very powerful pumps from the Flowserve Corporation. Flowserve believes that their pumps provide the highest pressure deep water injection centrifugal pumps in operation worldwide. The WIKO model, the one used in the project, is designed to provide a 50 percent higher pressure increase over current offerings to allow more oil recovery than available from lower pressure pumps. (2)

  
    BP and friends took control over the Macondo prospect through the Lease Sale #206 by MMS in March 2008. .....following in July 2008 was the Ursa project's first injection ( BP is in partnership on that project )...... A regional shallow hazards survey and study was carried out at the Macondo project area by KC Offshore all the way back in 1998. High resolution (HR), 2D seismic data along with 3D exploration seismic data of the MC 252 was collected by Fugro Geoservices in 2003. Mapping of the block was carried out by BP America in 2008 and 2009. I believe when they noticed the deposit was ready and " charged up ", by checking reservoir pressure in 2008 and than a year later in 2009, they went ahead and applied to the MMS, March 2009...because you have to be able to submit the seismic proof that there is sufficient oil or gas to warrant the damage to the environment, and the risks the drilling operation might produce. So just by coincidence that's 8 moths later, and the effects from enhanced oil recovery polymers take 6-9 months to show results from the point that they've been injected into the area..

 
  Below is a composite of the natural hydrocarbon pathways, the location of the well, some nearby hydrate formations and the MMS PDF screen-capture showing the block location grid of the Mississippi canyon.

                                            Here is a close-up of the block location 252.....

 This next one is a block grid map compilation of the Ursa-Princess project and the location of block 252, the location of the Horizon borehole. Blocks 808,809,810, 852, 853,854, 765 and 766 are all adjacent to each other, shown in the upper left-hand corner. The upper right is location of the Ursa-Princess project and the location of block 252, Horizon's " location " .

                 I don't think that things are what they say they are...but that's already obvious.

      The reality being overlooked here, I think, is that the borehole for Horizon is only around 18,500' deep in total. Horizon was drilled to a length of 35,050'. That's 6.6382575 miles. They were only approved to drill 30,000 feet. That's 5.681818182 miles.

                 6.6382575
               -5.681818182
              ____________
             =  .956439318 miles past limit imposed by the MMS


 So the fact that the borehole is only 18,500' deep and actually very close to the Ursa-Princess project..

 The UP borehole locations sit in-between 3600-3800 feet of water, Horizon is in a little over 5,000, feet of water, and less than 50 miles away, on a major pathway for underground hydrocarbons.

 I'm going to put this post up and continue to do some map comparing and research to expand on this a little more, stay tuned. You can always follow or subscribe to this blog at the bottom left of the page.


EDIT 7/8 2010

                                                          Hi there Flowserve..

 ....curious......what do you think about the idea of altering Non-Newtonian fluids with Faraday waves ?
Waves travel through erratically structured fluids with much less ease then they would through a fluid with an equidistant particle separation. Water based mud could be considered a Non-Newtonian fluid at the
hydrostatic " gel " point....right..?

                                                                       respectfully, Isaac






Sources :


1.   http://www.greencarcongress.com/2008/07/shell-begins-ur.html

2.   http://www.idswater.com/water/us/ultra_high_pressure_pumps/3765/newsrelease_content.html

3.   http://www.gomr.mms.gov/homepg/lsesale/pdf/nh16-10.pdf

4.   http://www.offshore-technology.com/projects/macondoprospect/

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