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

[Ron Cook]

I understand now.  But what I heard in the media was not what you 
fellows just explained.  What I heard was the extreme low temps of the 
water at those depths.  Just some stupid news commentator making like an 
expert, I suppose.  I can almost always shoot holes through their 
aviation talk as I have experience there and they don't.  Same here, I 
guess.

Ron

Chuck Bealke wrote:
> 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
> _______________________________________________
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