Just a quick update, since I’ve heard some slightly misleading reports going around, here’s some real news about what’s going on.

The current top hat device is limited by the roughly 15k per day processing capacity of the current vessel. The limit there is the amount of gas that can be flared off per day if I understand it right.

Two additional vessels are on the way now, as eventual replacements for the Discovery Enterprise drill ship, which is what is doing the processing now.

Here’s the latest update on what’s going on today. There’s some good news hidden in here by the way, if the new production top hat works as hoped, the majority of the spill may get handled before it hits the water, but of course, if the spill worsens in flow rate, the new vessels won’t be enough. But it’s unlikely that the well will flow much over 30k barrels per day, at least not judging from the materials I’ve read so far.

BP taps Toisa Pisces for Macondo

BP will use the well testing vessel Toisa Pisces and retrofit the Q4000 to burn oil, in an effort to up its ability to handle flow from a containment system on the Macondo well, but both ships face delays before they will be ready for duty.

BP aims to be able to collect as much as 28,000 barrels per day from the well in the US Gulf with the updgrades, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said at a press briefing.
….
BP is capturing more than 15,000 bpd through its containment system on the blown out well and is bumping up against the 18,000 bpd processing capacity of the Transocean drillship Discoverer Enterprise.

The oil tanker Massachusetts is lightering the Discoverer Enterprise as needed.

Ready
The additional capacity on the Q4000 will not be ready for about a week and the Toisa Pisces awaits a new containment system that is slated for the beginning of July.

The Q4000, which is hooked to the Macondo well through the choke and kill lines on the blowout preventer (BOP), is not expected to be ready to handle production until “late next week,” Allen said at the briefing Wednesday.

The Loch Rannoch is expected on location between 12 June and 15 June.

Toisa Pisces is already in the US Gulf, according to Sealion, and should be at the Macondo location around 19 June, Allen said.

The vessel came was previously working on the Mexico side of the Gulf.

Even though the vessels will be in place, BP does not plan use them to handle production until puts a new containment cap and riser system in place around the end of June or beginning of July.

The new cap will have a more solid connection with the well and may be able to “take the leakage down to almost zero,” Allen said Wednesday.
UpstreamOnline.com – BP taps Toisa Pisces for Macondo

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 9th, 2010 at 21:52 and is filed under Our World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.