On Sunday, April 25, 2010, just before midnight PDT, I emailed the Deepwater Horizon Unified Command. My email included the following suggestion:
"I keep seeing that picture of the oil seeping from the drill pipe, and wonder whether it would be possible just to cap that pipe somehow, using a ROV with robotic arms, for instance."
When I heard nothing back from them, I emailed them again on May 1. This particular email included several suggestions, including the following:
"1) Use the robotic arm of a ROV to place a cap on the open end of that riser that we keep seeing images of
2) Try to cap the other leaks in the pipe as well, using a similar technique"
Well, eight days after my original suggestion was forwarded, there seems to be movement. Here's a clip from an article that appears on the MSNBC web site this morning:
"BP was trying to cap the smallest of three leaks with underwater robotic vehicles in the hope it will make it easier to place a single oil-siphoning container over the wreck. One of the robots cut the damaged end off a pipe at the smallest leak Sunday and officials were hoping to cap it with a sleeve and valve, Coast Guard spokesman Brandon Blackwell said Monday. He did not know how much oil was coming from that leak. We see this as an opportunity to simplify the seafloor mission a little bit, so we're working this aggressively, BP spokesman Steve Rinehart said."
You be the judge. Can I claim credit for this new attempt to at least partially plug the leak, even if the operation is, as they say, being done in preparation for placing the dome over the leaky pipe in about a week's time? Maybe yes, maybe no. Should BP acknowledge my contribution, perhaps, when the dust settles and this disaster is behind us? Even if my emails had nothing to do with the current effort, or if others advanced the same idea, why would such a seemingly simple, obvious and cheap procedure take them so long to implement?
Now, let's see if it can be done, and what, if any impact it has on the leakage.
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I don't know if you can claim credit, but that is beside the point I think. You do have some amazing insight on what needs to be done however.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious to know how many ROVs are on sight for this disaster. I just read earlier that both Oceaneering and Subsea 7 are each bringing in teams with as many as 6 ROVs.
Oceaneering had been predicting a drop in their demand for ROVs in the Gulf for 2010. I'm hoping this might mean they have idle equipment in the region that can be brought out to assist.
Thanks, Kev! Last I heard, a few days ago, there were 10 ROVs on scene.
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