Deepwater Horizon Oil
Spill Response: Science
That Made a Difference
Dr. Marcia McNutt, Editor-in-Chief, Science | AAAS
Three Day Projected Oil Spill
Movement Forecast – June 3
Sand Berms
How useful?
USGS Open-File Report
2010–1108
June 2, 2010
Effects of Building a Sand
Barrier Berm to Mitigate the
Effects of the Deepwater
Horizon Oil Spill on
Louisiana Marshes
Estimating the Flow of the Macondo Well
• Developing a sound estimate of the escaping oil
was crucial for well intervention, oil containment,
and operational response.
• First estimate released was 5000 BPD, but it
clearly needed revision by mid-May when the
first video from the deep sea became available
• No analogues to this event to use to choose the
right method for measuring flow rate, so tried
multiple methods
•
Type of Flow Rate Estimates
 Models
 Required no new data collection
 Used industry proprietary data
 Produced the greatest range in flow rates
 Could theoretically have been produced prior to blowout
 In-Situ Measurements at Wellhead
 Several methods produced timely and accurate rates
 Best approach for measuring total flow rate
 Measurements Displaced from Wellhead
 Very useful for gauging ratios of surface versus subsurface
oil
Video Analysis
 Analyzed video from ROVs
Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV)
© BP p.l.c
Video Analysis
 2nd analysis after riser cut
© BP p.l.c
Acoustic Method
 Imaging sonar plus ADCP
deployed from ROV
 Collected fluid sample
Imaging
sonar
ADCP
Reservoir Modeling
 How does fluid flow through
permeable rock in response to a
pressure differential created by the
well?
 Is the depletion scenario credible?
Government Team Flow Estimates for 87 Days
Riser falls to
seabed ~62K BPD
Riser cut ~4% increase LDEO
59.8K BPD
NETL
WHOI
Hsieh
Barrels of Oil per Day
NETL
UCSB
LDEO
DOE
BKY
PIV
June 3
BKY
PIV
May 13-16
Stacking Cap installed
~4% decrease – 53K BPD
Cumulative Release: ~4.9 million barrels
Cumulative Oil Collected: ~0.8 million barrels (results from BP)
Alex: A rare
June hurricane
that struck a
glancing blow
on June 25,
2010
Proposal to Shut In the Well
Capping Stack (New)
BOP (Deepwater Horizon)
Relief Well #2
Relief Well #1
Source: Kent Wells technical briefing 8/2/10 (bp.com)
Well Integrity Team
Well Integrity Team members: (left to right):
Paul Hsieh, Water Mooney, Marcia McNutt, Steve Hickman,
Cathy Enomoto, Phil Nelson
48 hours
Hours
24 hours
6 hours
Pressure, psia
48 hours
Hours
24 hours
6 hours
Pressure, psia
Well Kill Team
BP schematic showing the well and relief well.
MC 252 Monitoring Plan through Well Intercept
Thurs
Friday
Tuesday
8/5
Operations:
Monitoring
8/6
Saturday
Sunday
8/7
8/8
Monday
Tuesday
Weds
Thurs
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
8/9
8/10
8/11
8/12
8/13
8/14
8/15
8/16
8/17
Test Cement
DDIII drilling & ranging
Intercept Annulus
Seismic:
Nikola
Post-Kill Seismic
Seismic: contingent,
only if HC observed
in annulus
Sonar:
Bigelow/
Pisces
Over wellhead with last seismic run, then every 48 hours or as SIMOPs permits
Surface:
Geophone:
Surface monitoring for sheen
Retrieve Geophone Data
Geophone
ROV:
Pressure
Pressure monitoring ongoing
Temperature
Discontinue Wellhead Temperature Monitoring
P. Acoustics
Discontinue Wellhead Hydrophone Monitoring (Big Ears)
Wellhead
Continue visual and sonar monitoring wellhead with intermittent seabed scans
Retrieve
&
de-mob
Geophone
Bonnie: A
tropical storm
that was a direct
hit on the
Macondo well on
July 24.
Did Science Make a Difference?
New science applications brought forth to estimate flow
rate.
Science was used to make a plausible case for well
integrity at a time of conflicting evidence.
Science was used to quantify bounds on well integrity as
hurricanes and tropical storms bore down on the well site.
The scientific method was used to settle all
disagreements on the best way forward for well
intervention to hasten the end to the Gulf crisis.
Lessons Learned from
the 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
 Think decades in terms of impacts and recovery
 Consider onshore/offshore and multiple levels of
food chain as coupled ecosystem
 Natural variation in marine and coastal ecosystems
will confound understanding of recovery
 Pre-spill data critical for assessing injury to
resources and recovery
 Consider how clean is too clean?