Page 12 - Capping Stack News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Line. >> thank you for taking my call. [ inaudible ] >> okay. here's the sequence once again. there are basically three ways that hydrocarbons can come up through a blowout preventer preventer, the one that's there or the capping stack we put on. the kill and the choke lines and then the main bore up through the preventer itself. we now have a capping stack on top of that. so there are five ways that you can potentially release oil. the kill and choke line from the original blowout preventer, the kill and choke lines from the capping stack and then the top of the capping stack itself. what we ...

And we will remove the way for the hydrocarbons to exit through the kill and choke lines on the original blowout preventer. then we move to three exit points, the choke and kill lines of the capping stack and then the top opening of the capping stack. then we will in sequence, first -- there are three rams that are part of the capping stack. the middle ram will be closed. that will seal the upper opening from any hydrocarbon release and leaves us the kill and choke lines. the kill line will be closed as well. this is either open or shut. that leaves the choke line of the capping stack as the l...

The integrity test today? >> we will take the pressure readings when we close the choke valve, and that will be done slowly to see if there are pressure changes as we start to restrict the flow and we don't do anything prematurely. it will also tell us something about the flow, empirical data we haven't had to date. let's not get wrapped up in the six hours. that's a horizon we look at for the pressure readings. >> could you close down that vent today? >> no. the capping stack -- all three ways for the hydrocarbons to exit will be closed, but the last one will be the choke line because it's go...

Left side. on the right side, you see these from earlier. the government's point man on the disaster says the testing involves closing off vents and measuring the pressure in the well. take a listen to this. >> and this exercise, high pressure is good. we have a considerable amount of pressure down in the reservoir, forcing the hydrocarbons up through the wellbore. we are looking for somewhere between 8 and 9,000 psi inside the capping stack which would indicate to us that the hydrocarbons are being forced up and the wellbore's being able to withstand that pressure. and that is good news. >> 8...

We want redundancy in the production capability and also in the capacity so that while we're doing this, we can still deal with the entire flow. for that reason, it was anticipated whether or not the capping stack works and we shut the well in that we would ultimately go to four sources of production under the new system, the kill and choke lines from the original blowout preventer and the kill and choke lines from the new capping stack. two would go to vertical riser pipes anchored on the sea floor, and the other two would go to drill strings that are put below production vessels and kengted ...