underwater metal working

Is the current unlocked thread.

Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

Those underwater cams are a bit frustrating for me because I don't know enough to figure out what they're trying to do to help the situation. I like the oildrum site because it provides a bit more context for me.

reply: It is highly amusing to listen to people who have never seen an oil rig talk about how easy it is to do things.

To take ONE nut off a flange, or a BOP, it takes two men and up to an hour, and that is topside in dry conditions. No weightless underwater scenario. One with a hammer wrench that weighs five pounds, one with a sixteen pound sledge hammer. The hammer wrench is a short wrench that will be the size of the nut involved, but let's say 3". The wrench has the common circular grip that goes over the nut, but the shaft has an approximately 2" x 2" x 12" cast square handle that is meant to absorb the hammer blows. This is all heat treated steel, so as not to bend or shatter. In order to get one nut off, it may take one hundred hefty strikes from a burly oil worker. The man who is in control of the wrench has a rope on it, and he positions it exactly on the nut, gets a tension on the rope, then gives the striker the signal to strike. Remember this is topside in dry air, and not underwater where body motions and hammer strikes are cut 90% due to water resistance.

If you have ever taken off a Hydril or BOP or Christmas tree off an oil well, you know it is tough work. If you haven't, it all looks simple. Now, it all changes 5,000 fold underwater where everything,s moving, and you have to "dog off", or anchor to something, or when you apply torque, you will spin off in the opposite direction with no effect on the nut. Yes, there are hydraulic spinners that can take these nuts off, and I wonder why they haven't been used to take off the leaking line at the flange (the bell part right under the cut pipe) and a new flange put on there with a valve. Remove old flange with damaged pipe, install new flange with valve, and once flange is on, close valve.

Of course, that's just a take from someone who actually worked hands on both topside and underwater with exactly these things. But WTF do I know compared to government experts.

I heard last week there was a man who said he could shut if off in less than a week, guaranteed. He was told his idea would be taken under advisement.

There is more political profit to be made from letting it spew than from fixing it, and from what I see and what I know, the damn thing should have been shut off by now, and the solutions are coming from common oilfield workers. But they aren't being heard, or the crisis is being prolonged intentionally.

Steve

visit my blog at

A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.

So, I guess someone has gotten the brilliant idea of removing the flange and putting on a new one that has a closure valve on it. I thought of that the first time I saw an under water picture of the well head.

They need to get all the experts out of the room and let the workers work.

Steve

visit my blog at

A fool shows his annoyance at once, but a prudent man overlooks an insult.

As an old rig hand..Id have to agree with you.

Gunner

One could not be a successful Leftwinger without realizing that, in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of Leftwingers, a goodly number of Leftwingers are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid. Gunner Asch