NIDC almost certainly does not have any technical capabilities that would benefit the Macondo blowout situation. NIDC and Iran in general has been starved of technical knowledge and drilling technology has not advanced much in the last few decades. Any of the challenging offshore work has been carried out by the likes of Statoil and other IOCs.
In addition there is very little if no expertise in Iran on subsea well heads, sub sea well design and Blow Out Preventers. Most wells in Iran are drill on land or from Jack Up rigs and platforms with surface stack BOPs. The well designs and surface assemblies are massivly different.
Now the proposed ‘top kill’ method is something that can be done quite readily on land in blow out or serious well control situation and no doubt NIDC has some experience with that. The concept of connecting up to the choke and kill lines and pumping some dense kill fluid down there is identical for subsea and surface stacks, where things deviate is in the 'how do you connect up to the choke and kill lines, how do you deal with pressure losses in umbilicals, tempererature effects etc etc etc" These are not small deviations.
In short NIDC does not have the back ground to even comprehend what is needed and stating that this would be no great feat in comparison indicates thay don’t have the slightest idea about the problems faced.
You are wrong.
In point of fact, the importation of information if explicitly allowed.
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Are you under the impression that they’re going to mail them a pamphlet?
No RNATB, I’ve heard that we may be inventing something called the “telephone” at some point. Years after that, we may invent “video conferencing”. Some time after that we may even dream up “email”. I’ve heard it’s on the drawing board at MIT.
Until then you are right, the only way an Iranian firm could freely disseminate information to BP would be by carrier pigeon.
Um, international offers of assistance in dealing with the oil spill have indeed been going through the US State Department. (So far it’s been “thanks but no thanks”, though.)
I’m not claiming that Iran isn’t trying to score propaganda points with this, but you are mistaken if you think that “response from American [government] officials” wouldn’t be necessary to allow Iran to actually provide international assistance to the US with the oil spill.
If those clever Iranian chaps can plug an oil leak via e-mail, they really will have something to offer.
Nations making official offers have been made to the officials of our nation.
That isn’t what’s at issue. Private firms could simply call up BP and offer to discuss the issue. You’ll also notice that “the government of Iran” does not appear on that list.
In point of fact, BP has solicited advice (albeit with complaints from the public that BP isn’t answering them or moving fast enough on their suggestions). What would stop an Iranian firm from creating a detailed paper explaining their knowledge, and sending it off to BP?
Of course RNATB, you’re right. No engineers or scientists working on such theoretical mechanics do so at their places of work. In order to discuss ways to deal with the spill, they’ve all had to go down in submarines and take notes. Why, even those discussing possible solutions have had to do so down in submarines.
It’s been a real hassle.
On the later point - NIDC could send what ever they wished, however it would be difficult for BP to respond in any way - sending a detailed well bore schmatic to NIDC would be shaky ground from a Trade Control Compliance point of view. Without a detailed understanding of the configuration of the well it would be difficult to make any meaningful contributions.
NIDC is a subsidiary of the completely state-owned NIOC under the direction of the Ministry of Petroleum of Iran. I don’t really see how any official offer of help from NIDC wouldn’t have to be officially on behalf of the Iranian nation, and thus addressed “to the officials of our nation”.
Assuming they could help, would personnel or equipment from Iran need to be on-site at some point?
Excellent…BP should take them up on their magnanimous offer, I say! Be a bit embarrassing to them if BP did, but what the heck?
Surely out of the goodness of their hearts, ehe?
I can’t keep a straight face at this point, so let me just ask the OP, how can you take seriously such a bald faced bullshit comment? They say it’s EASY?? Has any other company, government or expert claimed that this isn’t a major technical hurdle?? Can you name any? And if not, why should we take the Iranian’s seriously when they say something this incredibly stupid? Unless you are under the impression that the Iranian’s are the preeminent experts on deep sea drilling and oil well capping (snort). DO you believe this to be the case? And if so, what proofs do you offer to demonstrate that the Iranian’s know more about this stuff than BP or anyone else?
You do realize that BP is not the US, right? It’s a private company. Assuming you have grasped that, why would the US ask for help before we have tried to do anything ourselves yet? BP might ask for help (they being the ones working the problem atm and all), but if the US decides that BP has had their shot and aren’t doing the job we will probably start trying to do it ourselves…which will entail the US government and perhaps the military working with a new contractor to fix the problem and cap the well. Possibly at THAT point the US would try and enlist the redoubtable skills and puissant abilities of the friendly Iranian people in our darkest hour of need.
-XT
You are right, I thought that the NIDC was supposed to be privatized but it seems that the Iranian parliament blocked that a few years ago.
However, if there was such an official offer made, in reality, why isn’t it reported anywhere but on the state-run Iranian propaganda outlet? Why doesn’t the US mention it, surely the idea isn’t that Obama’s administration would hide the fact? And it’s also not at all clear that individual engineers at the NIDC wouldn’t be able to offer their personal advice to BP.
Are you aware of any restrictions to Iranians meeting with BP engineers?
Well, Reuters reported it, and yes, it’s on the SHANA website mentioned in the Reuters article.
Maybe just “announcing readiness to help” doesn’t count as actually making a direct offer of help so State doesn’t consider that it warrants an acknowledgment. However, given that Iran and the US officially have no diplomatic relations, AFAICT it’s hard to see how NDIC would “go through channels” to accomplish this.
In any case, if NDIC is indeed doing this just to score some propaganda points, which seems quite plausible, then I think the lack of any acknowledgment whatsoever from the US is to some extent a plus for them. Makes them look generous and us look hostile.
This.
Their entire oil industry is a product of outside technology. Iran operates in the Persian gulf with a maximum depth of 90 meters. The BP well in question is a deep water facility at a depth of over 1500 meters. The problem with the Deepwater Horizon well involves how to deal with methane hydrates and ice crystal forming at those depths. The offer of help doesn’t even qualify as propaganda.
Good on you for finding those cites, I didn’t when I looked. But be that as it may, there doesn’t seem to be any actual direct contact. It seems as if it was a rhetorical offer of help and not one that actually went through to the US government.
Well, there are intermediaries that have relayed diplomatic communications before. And the NIDC could have contacted BP directly and had BP speak to the state department on their behalf. And it’s not like Iran couldn’t have contacted the state department either. After all, even in the absence of official ambassadors, nations can contact each other. And the UN offered aid for the BP spill as well, it seems quite possible that Iran could have sponsored a resolution to create an international task force to help, or some such.
And there are degrees of direct contact, even if it’s not a full fledged exchange of ambassadors.
Sure it is, but I’m not even sure that the relevant officials in the US know. While it’s possible that they’ve read the Reuters article or caught it off Press TV, I’m not sure that they would. That we didn’t mention Iran making an official government offer tends to suggest that we didn’t get any official communications from them.
Be that as it may, it would have looked better to acknowledge it, but I’m not sure that would have mattered much. The situation would still be the same, just nobody’s trying to score propaganda points off the fact that we’re not inviting Ireland to help, either.
They could clog the leak with condemned political prisoners and women who show their ankles in public.
Or, perhaps, “to the officials” of the nation (Britain) the company (BP) is incorporated in? I haven’t seen them do that. Still looks like meaningless propaganda attempts, to me.
Actually, if they really wanted to help, they could offer one of the nukes they are supposedly (not) developing. Put a 10kt nuke down-hole, and I bet it would seal the thing!
ETA: That should have read: “(supposedly) NOT developing”
In the Gulf of Mexico?
No no Sqweels, the US recently let BP’s engineers out of the giant floating cage we’ve been keeping them in. I’m surprised you didn’t hear about that.