BP’s plan – I know very little about drilling oil wells, but one thing is confusing me. BP’s ultimate plan – the one that takes 3 months is to dig a parallel well, and then go horizontally and dig into the existing well and release the pressure.
The part I don’t understand is why they have to tap in at the bottom of the well shaft. Why not just go down 200 feet below the ocean floor, break into the shaft, and start pumping in something to obstruct the flow? My suspicion is they’re using a technique intended to recover the well as a producing well rather than sealing it off. If that’s the case, they are not very bright…
BP has a picture showing how they intend to try a “top kill” in the next few days (by pumping mud into the blowout prevention unit (BOP), and how they are doing the longer term horizontal drilling for a relief well to break into the shaft down close to the oil. It’s intereresting that the two other holes being drilled do not have a blowout preventer depicted. Maybe I’ve overly cautious, but what is to prevent this from happening again?