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Oil slick bigger than Exxon-Valdez

  • Thread starter thez_yo
  • Start date
  • #22
out of 4,000 oil structures in the Gulf (active and capped wells) one has caused major problems......dont think cementing itself is the problem.....may be a screw up in cementing this particular well or something like that but the process itself is a pretty good one.....
 
  • #23
rattler - I'm not saying the process is bad at all, so hopefully you didn't take it that way. I just figured that seeing as how I started this thread, I might as well keep it updated in case anyone is following what is happening, because I'm sure interested.
 
  • #24
to me the tone of the article was pointing fingers at the cementing process as a whole , wasnt directing my response at you per-say, just the article......as a whole the process is sound......on individual wells however someone can screw up and not do it right and the cementing on that particular well is screwed up, that can and does happen occasionally....
 
  • #25
From what I read, the casing is cemented. However, once the casing is in & cemented - the production zones are sealed in - unless somebody screwed something up - which obviously had to be the case ...
As long as the info supplied in the prior articles was accurate (as it apparently was), there aren't a lot of other variables. The 'hard' work has been done: drilling the well, finding and evaluating the production zone(s), running the casing all the way down and then cementing it in place. When the casing is all the way down, just about the only thing that can be screwed up is the cement job that seals the casing to the formation. Once that is done, the wells are typically 'safe' so the intense scrutiny that accompanies a lot of the previous activities can usually be 'relaxed' ....

I don't know how many people have followed the massive shalebed gas discoveries over the past few years. One of the largest bonanza's is the Marcellus shale which underlies much of PA. Given the depth of the source bed and current knowledge on how to produce the gas, there should be little risk from any well fluids ever finding their way into groundwater ....

That is - if everything is done properly. If the cement does not seal the casing to the formation, the high-pressure fracturing process will send dangerous well fluids directly to local aquifers. Massive ooops...
 
  • #26
yep even land based wells arent 100% safe......always something that can happen......there are risks in everything....
 
  • #27
Unrelated side note
The recent oil spill has resurrected many long-latent memories of my years working offshore. One of them that came back to me was riding in a personnel basket. The 1st time you ride a boat out to a rig & ride the 'basket' up is a pretty incredible experience. Getting on that thing from a rocking boat with waves coming over the sides is something to remember - being at the complete mercy of the crane operator and the heights of some of the larger rigs - wowza. It always seemed like there should be a better way than standing on a slippery plastic-covered metal ring holding on to a cargo net ... ???

Like many things - it soon becomes second nature...
 
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