IXTOC I

This was in the news today...

PORT FOURCHON, La. - Crewmen aboard the motor vessel Joe Griffin guide a cofferdam onto the deck as the ship prepares to depart Wild Well Control May 5, 2010. The chamber was designed to contain the oil discharge, that was a result of the Deepwater Horizon incident, before it reaches the surface. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Patrick Kelley. 

1. Containment Recovery System – BP plans to deploy this pollution containment system today.  Called a “cofferdam,” the structure will be lowered over the largest leak source. 

·  The cofferdam is a 125-ton, 14’ x 24’ x 40’ structure that will be set over the end of the riser (the pipe that normally goes from the wellhead to the drilling ship).  The end of the riser is currently about 600 feet from the wellhead on the sea floor.
·  The top of the containment system will be connected to a 5,000 foot pipe that will convey the collected hydrocarbons to the surface ship, the Deepwater Enterprise.
·  Once on the surface ship, the hydrocarbons will be processed and oil will be separated from water and gas. The oil will then be temporarily stored before being offloaded and shipped to a designated oil terminal onshore.

This concept seems unlikely to work, and potentially very dangerous.  I just hope they don't kill anyone else.


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I was somewhat vaguely remembering a prior blowout.  I moved to Houston to start to work for Conoco end-January 1979.  What I was trying to recall is the attempted use of a "sombrero" to gather the flow above the blowing well...sound familiar?

...my Déjà vu moment of the day...

IXTOC I

Bahia de Campeche, Mexico        1979-Jun-03 On June 3, 1979, the 2 mile deep exploratory well, IXTOC I, blew out in the Bahia de Campeche, 600 miles south of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico. The IXTOC I was being drilled by the SEDCO 135, a semi-submersible platform on lease to Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMEX). A loss of drilling mud circulation caused the blowout to occur. The oil and gas blowing out of the well ignited, causing the platform to catch fire. The burning platform collapsed into the wellhead area hindering any immediate attempts to control the blowout. PEMEX hired blowout control experts and other spill control experts including Red Adair, Martech International of Houston, and the Mexican diving company, Daivaz. The Martech response included 50 personnel on site, the remotely operated vehicle TREC, and the submersible Pioneer I. The TREC attempted to find a safe approach to the Blowout Preventer (BOP). The approach was complicated by poor visibility and debris on the seafloor including derrick wreckage and 3000 meters of drilling pipe. Divers were eventually able to reach and activate the BOP, but the pressure of the oil and gas caused the valves to begin rupturing. The BOP was reopened to prevent destroying it. Two relief wells were drilled to relieve pressure from the well to allow response personnel to cap it. Norwegian experts were contracted to bring in skimming equipment and containment booms, and to begin cleanup of the spilled oil. The IXTOC I well continued to spill oil at a rate of 10,000 - 30,000 barrels per day until it was finally capped on March 23, 1980 http://www.incidentnews.gov/incident/6250

The IXTOC I exploratory well blew out on June 3, 1979 in the 

Bay of Campeche off Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico. 

By the time the well was brought under control in 1980,

an estimated 140 million gallons of oil had spilled into

the bay. The IXTOC I is currently #2 on the all-time list 

of largest oil spills of all-time, eclipsed onlyby the 

deliberate release of oil, from many different sources, 

during the 1991 Gulf War.

http://www.incidentnews.gov/entry/517477

IXTOC I oil well blowout, Bay of Campeche, Mexico, June 1979 to 

March 1980. Impacted shoreline on South Texas coast. 

http://www.incidentnews.gov/entry/517522

IXTOC I oil well blowout, Bay of Campeche, Mexico, 
June 1979 to March 1980. Well head aerial view. 
http://www.incidentnews.gov/entry/517521

From the Royal Swedish Academy of Science......

But, what about that Sombrero?  

...aha...

Oil Spill Containment, Remote Sensing and
Tracking For Deepwater Blowouts:
Status of Existing and Emerging Technologies

MMS 1999 funded study

http://www.mms.gov/tarprojects/311/311AA.pdf

The Ixtoc I, the largest known blowout event, occurred 

in 160 ft water depth. The “Sombrero” oil collector 

system was designed, built and installed by Brown 

and Root, Inc. for Pemex in an attempt to contain 

the oil flow from this blowout while relief wells 

were being drilled to kill the blowout. There was 

no advance design or planning for this system which

was designed, built and installed in less than three 

months. The “Sombrero” generally was considered a 

failure as it recovered a very low percentage of 

the oil released, and was later removed after it 

suffered a structural failure.

...my hard disk may be old and slow, but the indexing 

system at least is still intact ;-)