on the news today I learned that the oil platform that exploded in the gulf of mexico has sunk , previous to its sinking it was spewing out oil that appeared to be under pressure.

there is a concern that 8,000 barrels of oil is leaking out under the ocean each day , but this is not yet apparant as there is probably a large bubble of oil forming under the ocean.

as crude oil at the cooler temperatures and higher water pressures becomes like a thick tar that forms bubbles , large bubbles before they begin to rise.

it would be nice if they have a valving system that can be used to cut the flow of oil , and I dont know if they do or they dont , but the crude oil is buoyant and lighter than water so it will eventualy rise to the surface.

a simple electric pumped hydraulic pipe pinching system
located on the bottom would work.

Haha except when the pipe pinching system explodes too :P

Maybe they can just dump a load of concrete over it or something. But it might be tricky, look how much trouble they has turning off those burning wells in Kuwait!!

yea but if its at the bottom where the pipe is going in the ground then it should be safe from the explosions.

and it would cap it at the hole.

and could even clip the pipe off at the same time it pinches the pipe.

result: no worries , no cleanup , no millions of dollars added cost.

cost: proably less that 5,000.00 each.

not a bad tradeoff.

I'd imagine way more than $5000 to install such a thing. And doing it on every oil platform in the world. Probably does end up cheaper fixing it than preventing it. Might as well spend that money preventing explosions!

sure if you had to hire a remote sub to do it , but if it
just snaps around a pipe at the top , it is guided by the pipe and sinks to the bottom where the pipe goes in the hole.

probably would want to do this after the well is in production , but it could be made to attach to the first pipe.

and $5000.00 a well is cheap compared to 100 million or so in damages and fines and cleanup expenses.

and public image might be worth that much alone.

The news says: "In almost all of these things, there's not one thing that happens; it's a series of things,"

I think it's just hard to predict. This probably doesn't happen often enough to know what expense is justified in preventing it. They already had many safety measures, so if all of them failed, one extra gadget could just as well fail too. Then what? Put two cut-off valves on the pipe? 10? Give up drilling altogether?

And what happens when the cut-off valve accidentally fires? And it also breaks the pipe because it's a bit rusty after all that time, so you get an oil leak where normally there wouldn't be one.

Every disaster could be prevented, but to do that would mean grinding the economy to a halt. It reminds me of 9/11. Suddenly everyone had the idea to install evacuation slides or other gadgets for people to escape by the outside of burning buildings. Or nuclear power where the safety guys won, and now nuclear is safer than coal - but at the expense of the economy, and now the environment too.