[AT] OT--(but tractors do use oil)

[Chuck Bealke]

On 5/16/2010 3:26 PM, Ron Cook wrote:
> .... And, where does it get to these freezing temps the news people refer to?
> I actually heard one a couple
> days ago talk about the below freezing temps at that depth.  Huh?
> Damned submarine would get stuck in the ice, eh?
>    
Ron,

The flow of a well often consists of a mixture of high pressure gas, 
water, oil, light ends (high btu liquids a bit like gasoline), solids, 
and other.  Gas taking a pressure drop cools VERY effectively.  As a 
high pressure gas and water mix takes a drop in pressure it can  freeze 
and plug the entire flow pronto.  On a well flowing on a land surface 
well this pressure drop often occurs through a choke (valve designed to 
withstand a 15,000 - or way more or less psi - continuous pressure drop) 
immersed in heated water or flow within stream separation equipment. The 
same freezing physics apply at deep water depths, so mechanisms or 
devices to handle high stream volume and pressure drop from a ruptured 
pipe subsea must be be tricky. Like many oil field emergency fixes 
(think Red Adair skills), such arts are learned from trial and error and 
experience.  No two wells are exactly the same, and there are regional 
and formation anomalies aplenty in the deep sea drilling biz.  Parts of 
it are high tech and ever changing.  For instance they are well into 
trials of carbon fiber drill pipe, as the weight of drill string even in 
water can be limiting. I kinda miss the oil and gas biz but have not 
quite found a good way to get back into it.

Chuck Bealke