Some good news (for once) about the Gulf gusher. Relief Well One detected primary well yesterday

[Statistical]

Work on the first relief well, which started May 2, continues. The well reached a depth of 16,275 feet on June 23 before the drillstring was removed from the well to carry out the first 'ranging' run using wireline. During the ranging run, the MC252 well was successfully detected. Subsequent ranging runs will be needed to more precisely locate the well. Drilling and ranging operations will continue over the next few weeks towards the target intercept depth of approximately 18,000 feet, when 'kill' operations are expected to begin. The second relief well, which started May 16, is drilling ahead at a measured depth of 10,500 feet. Both wells are still estimated to take approximately three months to complete from commencement of drilling

http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7063132

A somewhat simplified explanation. First thing is BP isn't drilling the relief well. They have hired an company who specializes in solving difficult drilling problems (damaged wells, difficult geology, relief wells, etc). The lead engineer on relief well team has indicated he has done 40 relief wells and hit target on first attempt 40 of 40 times.

The relief well has to intersect the main well at ~18,000 ft below ocean floor. Obviously there is no way to see the well so how do you hit a target about a foot in diameter 3 miles under sold rock? Rather than poke around blindly they need something to identify the angle, direction, distance to main well so they can periodically adjust well shaft and "steer" into intersection point.

They do this by ranging. The main well is charged with an electrical current; electricity traveling in a wire generates a magnetic field. The sensor measures the magnetic field and a computer models the relationship between relief well and main well. From that they give drilling team a new "heading" (direction & angle).

The first ranging was conducted yesterday and the relief well "saw" the magnetic field and the drilling team has an updated target to drill towards.

Best analogy I can think of would be the game Marco-Polo. You are chasing blind so periodically you need to stop call Marco and then "aim" for the "Polo" response. Detecting the magnetic "Polo" is an important but geeky development and likely will be ignored by the media. Given the damaged condition of main well it wasn't 100% guaranteed that relief well would be able to "see" main well. The next step is to pull up sensor package, re-lower drill string and drill closer to the main well. They will keep alternating drilling and ranging until they hit main well.

[LaurenG]

1. Awesome

hurry expert company!

[HughMoran]

2. Fingers crossed

This is our only hope of stopping this monster at this time.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. If they began May 2nd and it takes three month, does that mean

This thing has another month to go before we see the end to the leak? (God knows it will be decades before anything will be normal again.)

[Statistical]

4. Assumming no complications, delays, or halts due to hurricaines.

There is some element of luck involved.

Kinda like a marathoner with a 9 minute mile pace. He CAN do it in 4 hours. However it isn't guaranteed (or even likely) that each Marathon will be exactly four hours. He might even do it in slightly less than 4 hours but an injury, or excessive heat, poor hydration, or bad pace management could make it take longer.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. Whoever this specialist is, Obama should give him the full support of

the White House. As in, allow the guy to coordinate backup plans.

[Statistical]

7. This is the thing I worry about and I think Obama got wrong.

The company doing the drilling is a contractor of BP. BP, not federal govt, not the taxpayers is their client.

Personally I think it would have been better for the US govt to hire the company, and have the company report directly to US govt, and when complete the govt simply bill BP the total cost of relief well.

The govt wouldn't be doing the drilling (just like BP isn't) but the govt would be more "in the loop").

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. Obama could correct this.

They should speak directly to this company and tell them that they won't tolerate any micro-managing from BP that puts the success of the mission at risk.

[mopinko]

10. if i understand correctly, and i might not, thad allen

is in charge of pretty much everything now.

[Webster Green]

9. It's Boots & Coots.

They are the best at controlling runaway wells.

[groundloop]

5. Unfortunately that sounds correct

It's been reported all along that a relief well wasn't going to be completed until sometime in August at the earliest. From this it sounds like that's still more or less the case.

[backscatter712]

11. Glad they have instruments to help them navigate as they drill.

I was wondering how they target the relief well - you're going thousands of feet deep, and if you're digging totally blind, it's hard to hit anything.

But some instrumentation that can help them steer would certainly have to be used.

Glad they're in the ballpark at this point.

[Scurrilous]

12. K & R

:thumbsup:

[SidDithers]

13. K&R...

thanks for posting.

Sid

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. The information posted is from BP.

Something to bear in mind.

[SlipperySlope]

15. Personally I only give the kill about a 60% chance of working

The dynamic kill may be the best solution left, but it isn't foolproof. This is a hell of a well and there are still many things that could go wrong.

[Skip Intro]

16. Sounds like a plan. Hope it works. Relief well One?

Will there be a need for a Relief Well Two? or more? That kinda made me look twice.

It's just sad all around.

[onestepforward]

17. Wishing them speedy success. n/t