Aftermath:Oilwell Blowout

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Dark Silver
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#1 Aftermath:Oilwell Blowout

Post by Dark Silver »

as most of you are aware, I work in the oilfield. The company I work for was on a job near Gueydon, Louisianna, going back into the hole to drill after coming up for a new drillhead....when the well started coming in.

Those not in the oil field won't know what that means,basically, the pressure in the geological formation the hole was being drilled through became greater thanthe drilling fluid was "balanced" up hold back. This causedeverything to rush along the path ofleast resistence....or up the hole.

When you see a blowout on TV, they show oil shooting up out of the hole, and everyone cheering....this isn't the case. A well coming in like that is dangerous, deadly, and destructive. the Drillpipe in the hole flies up and out, like small missles, nearly 600 lbs of metal with each 30' section of drillpipe...

The gas and fluids which come out of the hole are explosive, and easily ignited, just the raw heat coming from that depth is enough to ignite, flames shoot up several hundred feet at times, an continue burning as long as there's "fuel" coming out of the hole for them to burn. The heat isunimaginable, enough to turn a 180' drilling rig into molten slag....

Luckily, at this site, everyone was able to evac in time. No one was lost, just things...and things can be replaced. When the fires finally where killed off,one of the company's salesmen went and took pictures....as you can see, even with the fire 3 days gone, smoke was still rising from much of the site..

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Sightss like this, is part of the reason I'm getting out of this business as soon as I can, and opening my game shop. No one was hurt this time, but who knows about next time. Funny thing was, I went to that job site for a few days about a month or two ago to releive one of our guys.
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"Then again, Detective....how often have you dreamed of hearing your father's voice once more? Of feeling your mother's touch?" - Ra's Al Ghul
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Elheru Aran
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#2

Post by Elheru Aran »

I think 'ouch' would be somewhat of an understatement...

They have pressure gauges in the drill or something so they can tell when these blowouts will happen, I'm guessing? Hence the evacuation...
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#3

Post by Dark Silver »

not so much guages, but there is a monitoring system of sorts...

It's called a "Trip Tank". There is a exact amount of drilling fluid in the hole at all time, dependant on how deep the holeis, and it's diameter. The Trip Tank, is a vat of fluid with precise marking, that the fluid in the tanks is filled to.

If you start losing mud outof the tank, or suddenlyhave more mud in the tank thanthere should be, something is wrong, either the hole is drinking it (a bad thing, means we lost pressure in the formation somehow, thus our fluid is overbalanced), or the tank gains fluid, which means we're underbalanced, and we have a very short amountof time to get things right.

That, and when a blowout occurs, you dont need anything to gauge it. It's bad...you can hear the rumbling for a approx a mile when the pressures decides to flood the hole, you can feel the ground shake throughout the entire location as all that drilling fluid and whatever else the ground decided to kick up comes up and out...

And when you hear and feel it, it's time to haul ass.
Allen Thibodaux | Archmagus | Supervillain | Transfan | Trekker | Warsie |
"Then again, Detective....how often have you dreamed of hearing your father's voice once more? Of feeling your mother's touch?" - Ra's Al Ghul
"According to the Bible, IHVH created the Universe in six days....he obviously didn't know what he was doing." - Darek Steele bani Order of Hermes.
DS's Golden Rule: I am not a bigot, I hate everyone equally. | corollary: Some are more equal than others.
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Elheru Aran
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#4

Post by Elheru Aran »

Dark Silver wrote:not so much guages, but there is a monitoring system of sorts...

It's called a "Trip Tank". There is a exact amount of drilling fluid in the hole at all time, dependant on how deep the holeis, and it's diameter. The Trip Tank, is a vat of fluid with precise marking, that the fluid in the tanks is filled to.

If you start losing mud outof the tank, or suddenlyhave more mud in the tank thanthere should be, something is wrong, either the hole is drinking it (a bad thing, means we lost pressure in the formation somehow, thus our fluid is overbalanced), or the tank gains fluid, which means we're underbalanced, and we have a very short amountof time to get things right.

That, and when a blowout occurs, you dont need anything to gauge it. It's bad...you can hear the rumbling for a approx a mile when the pressures decides to flood the hole, you can feel the ground shake throughout the entire location as all that drilling fluid and whatever else the ground decided to kick up comes up and out...

And when you hear and feel it, it's time to haul ass.
/reads/ Gotcha.

/looks at pictures again/ ...No fuckin' kiddin' it's time to haul ass. :shock:

Soooo... oh, brief OT question... where you thinking about opening that game shop?
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Dark Silver
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#5

Post by Dark Silver »

Depending on how soon I can get the funding approval.....

I'm targetting a August - October Opening Window
Allen Thibodaux | Archmagus | Supervillain | Transfan | Trekker | Warsie |
"Then again, Detective....how often have you dreamed of hearing your father's voice once more? Of feeling your mother's touch?" - Ra's Al Ghul
"According to the Bible, IHVH created the Universe in six days....he obviously didn't know what he was doing." - Darek Steele bani Order of Hermes.
DS's Golden Rule: I am not a bigot, I hate everyone equally. | corollary: Some are more equal than others.
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#6

Post by Cynical Cat »

Good luck.
It's not that I'm unforgiving, it's that most of the people who wrong me are unrepentant assholes.
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