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cak_ask asked in News & EventsCurrent Events · 1 decade ago

Is there somewhere to see a diagram of the Gulf Pipeline that is "leaking"?

I guess I always thought they drilled DOWN and shipped the crude oil to land. But based on the recent events, that apparently is not the case.

I wonder about the structure and dimensions of the pipeline and at what point it is compromised.

1 Answer

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  • xomoc
    Lv 6
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    I copied the following from the link at the bottom.

    The first significant success at reducing the release of oil came on May 17, 2010 when robots inserted a four-inch diameter Riser Insertion Tube Tool (RITT) into the Horizon’s riser (21-inch diameter pipe) between the well and the broken end of the riser on the seafloor in 5,000 feet of water. The RITT was expected to work like a straw, sucking the leaking oil into a tanker waiting on the surface where the oil would be separated and then shipped ashore. BP initially stated that the RITT was recovering 5,000 barrels per day, but on May 21, 2010, BP reduced that estimate, stating that the device was recovering an average of about 2,200 barrels of oil a day. Additional oil continued to flow from the leaks. BP subsequently reported that from the period from May 17th to May 23rd, the daily oil rate collected by the RITT had ranged from 1,360 barrels of oil per day (b/d) to 3,000 b/d, and the daily gas rate has ranged from 4 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD) to 17 MMCFD. The oil is being stored and gas is being flared on the drillship Discoverer Enterprise, on the surface 5,000 feet above. The RITT was disabled on the evening of May 25, 2010 in preparation for the "top kill" procedure initiated the following day.

    http://www.eoearth.org/article/Deepwater%E2%80%A6

    This info on the LMRP was copied from the link below.

    The 14-foot-tall, 4-foot in diameter cap, officially called the Lower Marine Riser Package containment system, is BP's latest attempt at controlling the flow of oil from the blown-out Macondo well 5,000 feet beneath the water's surface in the Gulf of Mexico. The process called for putting a cap affixed with a suction tube in the place of the well's bent and broken riser pipe. The mechanism, if it works properly, would keep out sea water and capture a large amount, though not all, of the oil and natural gas spewing from the well. But because the process involved cutting away the damaged riser pipe, the procedure increased the amount of oil flowing from the site.

    http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/%E2%80%A6

    Source(s):

    Edit

    http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?cate%E2%80%A6

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