Move it to GQ. It seems to be about water hammer and toilets. 
“There is no cannibalism in the Gulf of Mexico. Absolutely none, and when I say none, I mean that there is a certain amount, more than we are prepared to admit . . .”
It’s not excessive pressure they’re worried about, it’s the lack thereof. Low pressure means it’s leaking below. They were expecting something between 5 and 8,000 psi and they’re getting 6,700 (PBS news info). It’s kind of an ambiguous number. If they think it’s leaking then they will move the oil to the surface to take the pressure off the well pipe.
If by hilarious you mean soul crushing, yes.
See also the “blue balls” effect.
Here’s a debate. What is the basis for your “should”?
Yes. You will want to put in a little water hammer arrestor dealio on affected pipes to fix this problem. Basically, you need to trap air in the pipe to act as a shock absorber.
Water hammer can knock out valves and can burst pipes. It’s not a good thing. Should be a pretty easy fix for a plumber or you can do it yourself if you’re feeling brave.
Just drill a relief toilet.
6,700 psi is a lot lower than the 8,000 to 9,000 they were looking for in top kill. Reportedly, it matches what they managed to raise the pressure to in that operation. But in top kill, the oil and mud had a free exit through the riser to mitigate the pressure. Unless there’s a leak, or the formation has depleted, the pressure should be higher than that now.
I guess we’ll see, but 6,700 psi is not at all a comforting initial reading.
The basis is the ability to deal with damage to a riser which is a very real possibility. They shouldn’t be expected to prepare for astroids or space aliens attacking but dealing with the problems directly associated with the drilling/pumping process is their responsibility. Otherwise we would be picking up the tab.
If I understand it correctly they can connect the new valve to 4 ships so they could relieve the pressure in the well pipe by pulling the oil out. It has someplace to go now that they have a tightly sealed manifold valve. There should be no problems with frozen methane sludge gumming up the works.
Sure, but in the best of all worlds they could just leave all valves closed and not worry about having to collect anymore. Too bad the pressure numbers look like there might be a breach somewhere underground. If that continues to be the case, the sane thing to do will have to be exactly what you suggest. I think we’d all prefer a slam-dunk shutdown of the wellhead at this point.
So you’re saying that at 6700psi, the oil is slowly working its way through rock in the seabed?
Nope. However, if the formation is still pressurized to 8700 psi, the extra 2,000 psi has got to be going somewhere. Probably out around a poorly cemented casing, but that’s just speculation.
OTOH, the lower pressure could simply be the result of 87 days of unrestricted flow on the reservoir.
I doubt the reservoir got that tapped out after 87 days through a .6 square inch hole. Or, I agree the extra psi must be going somewhere.
High flow could have caused blockage of the pores through which the hydrocarbons enter the well pipe.
That’s a good one. What do you think are the odds that is the case? How high would the flow really seem at the reservoir?
I would think it more likely that the case split closer to the surface and 8,000 psi of pressure is driving it through the ocean floor which is nothing but limestone.
Notice I was responding to this post:
I was talking about Ruminator’s toilet. Just before the banging noises, it makes a Woooshhhh sound. 
That’s government’s job. Industry doesn’t pre-plan unless it has to, it’s job is to make profits for it’s shareholders.
Government oversight through the mechanisms of regulation and criminal corporate liability is what failed here, and that was because government allows industry to buy the level of regulation it desires, as well as the exposure of senior exec’s to criminal charges.
Deflecting this onto the company is like blaming the banks for being casino capitalists - it kind of goes with the territory. If gov was less easy to buy, this shit would happen less.
Hey you know what?
I used to play a well completions engineer in real life, ( I also know a bit about formations and reservoir behaviour, as well as topside production operations)
If the reservoir closed in pressure is 8000psi, and that is measured at the bottom of the hole. That could easily equate to 6700psi topsides dependant on the height of the column of oil it is supporting.
I dont know how deep the well is or in fact how deep the ocean is at that point. ( apart from very and probably very) But 8700psi bottom hole would not equal 8700psi at the sea bed. It would be considerably lower.
Hydraulic hammer is not too much of a problem in wells. Downhole safety valves typically ‘slam shut’ on activation.
The well fluids may consist of gas, condensate, oil and water. As the well flows through a break or rupture or other orifice the tubing flowing pressure will reduce. This will permit gas to evolve in the tubing and then the well will flow to the maximum through that orifice with respect only to frictional resistanec of the two phase flow in the pipe. (This gas in the tubing also prevents hydraulic hammer on sudden closure of valves)
The pressure in the reservoir local to the well perforations ( the holes in the pipe which permits the reservoir fluids to migrate into the well) depletes also along a gradient, as the well flows, and is determined by the porosity of the formation, or if the reservoir is not particularly porous, determined by the permeability caused by reservoir fractures or other structures.
Reservoirs may not have the uniform pressure profile that you would expect. One of the dangers (for BP) is that an uncontrolled flow from the well may deplete the pressure in a local area near the well tubing. If there is an adjacent higher pressure water zone in the reservoir then a higher diferrential pressure may cause that water zone to fracture the reservoir and ‘finger’ through to the low pressure area near the tubing. This means that they wont recover as much oil and start producing water. Not only will they need pay for the clean up but they may totally screw the well.
I have some excellent introductory training materials (PPT etc) that describes well technology and reservoir management which I can upload to a publicly accessible server if anyone wants to get a little bit deeper insight.
I delivered this training materials to graduate engineers overseas. The language is clear enough for people for whom english is not their first language and the content is for smart guys who don’t have a lot of experience.
Am sure it wouldn’t present a challenge to SDMB readers. Just let me check its not copywrited.