After Deepwater Horizon sinking, with the riser still attached.....I have my doubts that the shallow cement shoes are sturdy , I have a real hard time believing that there is oil & gas not leaking up the annulus, from the reservoir or higher areas around the wellbore ( They are called" lenticulars " or lenses of sand and are found laterally to the side of the bore in surrounding formations of shale ) and finding un-seated joints in the wellbore and migrating laterally out through the mudline, I have an even harder time believing that there was no damage to the outer layer of cement lining the wellbore when DWH sank.
We all know that they had to use cables and winches to straighten out the flex joint on top of the BOP stack, before they added the 3-ram capping stack.
Why...?
Because it was bent,..... and if it was bent, than that means that the force applied when the sinking platform torqued not just the flex-joint , but the other parts of the system below it, all of which are joined with technical precision in a series of hubs, locks and seals which allow various parts of the system to fit together, and fit together well enough to contain high volume flows of crude oil and gas.
Looking at the following diagram, I still have my doubts these connections are 100% structurally integral.
....here is a rare picture....the base of the BOP at the ocean floor...look undamaged to you...?
............ So how do you remove the BOP stack and attach a new one to a damaged connection ?
.......then there's that ugly fact they cemented (read "trapped" ) fluid into a supposedly sealed space, ie" the annulus ", so there's a fluid of unknown compressability in a space whose integrity is unknown also....great.
.....for weeks now, I have wondered where this trapped fluid was supposed to go...?
. ....if the cement at the bottom was completely blocking flow ( communication ) with the reservoir and thereby blocking any fluids from coming up the annulus, why are they looking for seeps ?
...and... BTW, try to find any info on high volume/large biogenic seeps like Ken Wells says was the source of the gas around the wellhead....you won't find biogenic methane being produced in large enough quantities to vent from the seafloor,....it gets frozen into hydrates long before it leaks out of the mud and rock.
..Then it can get warmed and will dissociate in large enough amounts to be noticeable as a seep, if fluids erode their way into the area they have formed in.
......if what Mr.Wells were saying was true, those particular " miracle " microbes would be put to use already in the petroleum industry making natural gas....
....Only thermogenic gas can migrate fast enough to establish pathways in the strata, only thermogenic is produced in those high quantities. Yes, there are biological traces of microbial gas ( methogenic, biogenic ) in most thermogenic gas, but are they are a small fraction considering the main source they are found with.
...if the wellbore isn't damaged, the annulus shouldn't be leaking into the surrounding geology and finding it's way up though the mud.
...if it is damaged....how do you guarantee that any fluids/cement you pump into it won't just get pushed right up and out... ?
......if the cement job is allowing fluids to leak up the annulus from the reservoir, then how will it provide enough resistance for the incoming mud to push the heavier fluid up through the annulus, instead of blowing the plug out backwards into the reservoir ?
......at least this sudden conundrum should quell myths about " switched-out wellheads" and blowout preventers secretly already replaced in secretive underwater operations.
......But,... enough with off-the-cuff engineering, seriously,.. what's next ...?..the flux capacitor and the inverted-vortex 9 ram gate-valve-piston shear capping-riser ?
....Can I get a shake & some fries with that ?
..
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