edit: found this http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/gr...
"BP is drilling two relief wells, which will permanently intersect with the damaged well and shut down the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico by pumping concrete into it."
So a relief well is a new well that intersects with current wells and allows concrete to be flowed to the current wells. Can anybody elaborate?
Why would it be political suicide to come out and say, "This is the only viable option. Here are the pros, here are the cons. This is our best option. Now let's get to work."
I can't find a time frame on how long the relief well would take, I suspect a while. (It took 9 months for the first well to come online in the Ixtoc 1 spill, and even then it took another 3 months for the flow to subside). The political suicide comes from human nature needing to see something being done.
"Uh, so we have a fix in place. Oh yeah, it's gonna take a year to work."
"So what do we do now?"
"Wait."
edit: found this http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/gr... "BP is drilling two relief wells, which will permanently intersect with the damaged well and shut down the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico by pumping concrete into it."
So a relief well is a new well that intersects with current wells and allows concrete to be flowed to the current wells. Can anybody elaborate? Why would it be political suicide to come out and say, "This is the only viable option. Here are the pros, here are the cons. This is our best option. Now let's get to work."