Quote:
Originally Posted by ScottyS
Haha, obviously there are a lot of technical considerations to working robotically at that scale at that depth that those of us who are fairly handy or have even worked on large industrial mechanicals cannot fully appreciate. Or, it's all just a conspiracy, man.
The fastest and most effective method would simply be to stuff Al Gore and Michael Moore into the opening headfirst with instructions to swallow as much of the crude as possible.
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The latter is funny, and I have a respect for the challenges, but there is a bloody butt flange right there!!!
The big cutter just seems like it was dumb and severely limited their future options. Assuming they have a saw that works at that depth, how tough can it be to engineer a rig that clamps to the pipe and acts as a track/guide to cleanly cut the pipe.
And if they don't have the tools and ability to manipulate, cut, flange/thread, cap a live pipe at that depth, then they have no bloody business drilling there in the first place. Relying on something you put in at the top of the well before you started or early on in the drilling process no matter how cool/redundant it is without an alternate manual/brute force method is pretty naive.
Where are the guys that design methods for fixing leaks in submarines and large navel ships?
Call MacGrubber!