Engineer folk chime in on this but… Arent the actual drill bits used to drill the well also used to extract the oil? If so considering that the drill bits themselves are like large metal straws then how would one go about capping something like that considering that any valve you incorporate would simply be blocked by the hollow metal pipe running through it? If that is in fact the case then would they then not be able to simply detach a section of the pipe and attach a block off device? Yes I understand that there are high pressures involved. However, the shut off device could be open when mounted then when secure in place simply have its outlet shut off. Also is it possible that the shut off valve its sellf was poorly designed? What i mean by that is that the differential pressure between the well and ocean is too high, causing the valve to stick?
Drill pipes are not the well pipes. Casing is put in the hole after the drilling is complete. Usually the valves are installed in the casing head. I don’t know a thing about underwater driling and if they have blow out preventers. or not. The depth of the sea floor is a huge issue with only being able to use robots. At the surface its still a very very difficult task cutting a bad head off and installing a new one. DS1 and DS2 showed that.
I’m suspecting there is a broken pipe spewing oil from the well? Wouldn’t this work? Get some divers down there… or one of those deep sea automated robots! We have the technology… and this doesn’t seem like rocket science.
:lol: Clean baldy should email that to Obama with the subject “here dumbass, I can has fix”.
I believe the valve on this rig is made by Cameron, right here in the good ol’ U S of A. You have to remember that the rig was connected to the pipe when it sank. So this valve is on a bent up pipe. It still failed though.
They were done drilling, and in completions, so there was no bit involved at all.
I mean it should work fine… have a man scuba dive 4,000 feet to the golf floor and cap it! Dude 4,000 feet of water think about it. Plus I’m pretty sure the well currently has a pressure of +30,000 PSI, so until this pressure gets balanced, this baby is going to be upset! LoL…
If you have some time (16 min) listen to this…
http://www.drillingahead.com/video/transocean-survivor-interview
^
Then they just need to build the valve to be able to shut on that type of pressure. 
How about my 2nd solution!? Since this is underwater, it’s a lot easier to get massive amounts of material above the problem. On land, this wouldn’t work out so well since it’d be hard to get the materials above the problem. Get some barges that have bottoms that open up, load them up with material and dump it all over the well covering it up with TONS and TONS of material…
You’re probably the smartest guy I know.
Baldy, you’re not serious with that last one are you?
If it works, yes. If it’s retarded, no.
LOL
hahahaha I love that answer!
My vote is for many torpedos.
I <3 baldy’s pictures…
Can you make a picture of a dome, a large dome, that can drop in place over the oil pipe. At the top of this dome put a valve with a tube that leads to a ship where that ship can collect said oil.
FIVE…THOUSAND…FEET…
More or less what I was sort of suggesting. Same concept any way. I am almost starting to wonder if controlling the spill is the main priority or the quickness with which they begin to drill and produce/sell oil.
They will not be using the oil from the secondary drilling. They will be using that drilling to pour concrete and cut off the flow.
They have to collect the oil to stop the damage, if they are able to sell the oil after thats good, our .gov is going to jam a huge bill up their ass, they will need the money.
If the well presure is 30k, what is the dp betweet the well head and sea water?
It’s not easy to cap a line that is venting @ pressure.
I wonder if they could pinch the line to limit flow a bit?
30000 PSI? Seriously? Source?
I fucking love those pictures.
NYspeed of course.