The last thing the administration or the industry wants is bad news. Which they can’t seem to hide because it’s such a “big” incident.
These types of leaks are very tough to stop. Especially at this depth. Usually they have to drill relief wells which take months.
Here is industry expert @ 6 minutes, Matt Simmons, he said the flow rate could be 120,000 barrels/day and that the only way to stop the leak is by bombing the well head.
120,000 barrels per day = 5 million gallons per day.
He said BP was concealing the extent of leak from the start and the new videos released show 120k barrels, easily, flowing into GOM.
At about 8am, CDT, as I watched, things started changing rapidly. Where the water around the two major gush points used to be very clear, it is now super turbid, and detritus is flying everywhere in a chaotic manner. seabed venting is obvious to see when ROV cameras pan around.
Yet-to-be-confirmed rumors are that the casing wall has finally worn through, about 300 feet below seabed, at an annulus (coupling), and the gas and oil are now finding a new way out to the seabed.
Not good news, as it will make the Top-Kill/Junk Shot nearly ineffectual… At the least, it means that more pressure and mud/cement is going to be required.
We’ll see.
See for yourself, here: via BP Live Spillcam
snip
Seabed seems to have sunk rapidly (perhaps scoured away rapidly?). Riser end is now in a big crater. Side pipes more exposed– different angle?
UPDATE 1:20pm CDT: While watching, ANOTHER major “explosion” occurred. ROV Cam now covered in Oil. It was pushed around by the force of expulsion, or moved back a few feet by controllers. Our Favorite Disaster Bot is taking a beating. Gush seems to have at least doubled in size and volume.
Screengrab of the early Morning Chaos Event. Everthing went up all at once. ROV was perfectly stationary. EVERYTHING went “BOOM” and black:
