What is the real experience revealed by the prototype of the deep-sea catastrophe?

Deepwater Horizon is based on the 20 10 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which tells the life and death experiences of workers on oil rigs in catastrophic accidents.

20 10 on April 20, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in the United States attracted great attention from the international community. Many countries send equipment and personnel to the United States to help the United States deal with the pollution problem as soon as possible. Although Iran has a serious conflict with the United States in nuclear energy projects, it has also provided the United States with the technology of drilling relief wells. On July 5, 20 10, BP announced that the new oil control device successfully covered the underwater oil spill, and "no crude oil flowed into the Gulf of Mexico".

Accident site

The Gulf is named for its proximity to Mexico. Located in the southeast coastal waters of the North American continent, it is partly surrounded by land. It is connected with the Atlantic Ocean through the straits of florida between Florida Peninsula and Cuba Island, and with the Caribbean Sea through the Yucatan Strait between Yucatan Peninsula and Cuba. The two straits are about 160 km wide. The longest distances in the east-west direction and the north-south direction of the Gulf of Mexico are about 1.800km and 1.300km respectively, with a total area of about 1.55 million square kilometers. Its northwest, north and northeast are the southern coast of the United States, and its west, south and southeast are the eastern coast of Mexico.

Explosion and fire

An oil drilling platform near the coast of Louisiana in the south of the United States caught fire and exploded at around 10 local time on April 20, 1965, causing 7 serious injuries and at least 1 1 missing. The authorities have sent ships and planes to carry out search operations in the Gulf of Mexico, hoping to find traces of lifeboats or survivors. After the accident, most of the 126 workers on the platform escaped safely. Some workers frightened by the explosion and fire jumped off the 30-meter-high drilling platform to escape, while others chose lifeboats. The drilling platform was built at 200 1 and owned by Transocean Drilling Company. At present, a production contract has been signed with BP.

Crude oil leakage

On April 24th, 20 10, the US Coast Guard said that the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform exploded and sank for about two days, and the damaged oil well on the seabed began to leak oil. This oil well is located under the sea1525m. According to the detection of submarine detector, the drilling riser and drill pipe began to leak oil, and the estimated oil leakage was about 1000 barrels per day. "We think this is a serious oil spill," said Connie Terrell, a Coast Guard official. "We are doing our best to help clean up the oil slick." BP, which rented the drilling platform, dispatched planes and ships to clean up the oil slick on the sea surface, but the cleaning work was blocked due to bad weather conditions.

The situation has deteriorated.

On April 28th, 20 10, the US Coast Guard said that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated that the oil well at the bottom of Deepwater Horizon, an offshore drilling platform that sank in the Gulf of Mexico, leaked about 5,000 barrels a day, five times the previous estimate. The oil well continued to leak oil that day, and the engineers found another oil leak. In order to prevent the oil slick from drifting to the US coast, the US disaster relief department "encircled the oil" and burned thousands of liters of crude oil.

Newly discovered oil spill point

Mary Landry, an official of the Coast Guard, said at the press conference on April 28th, 20 10 that the engineers of BP who rented Deepwater Horizon discovered the third oil spill. Landry said: "BP informed us that another oil spill was found in the subsea well." The chart provided by the Coast Guard and the disaster relief department shows that the oil slick area is 160 km long and the widest point is 72 km. Seen from the air, the dense oil slick area extends to the coastline like tentacles.

Landry said that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated that the oil well leaked about 5,000 barrels a day, five times the previous estimate. BP disagrees with this quantity. Doug Sarteur, the sales manager, said that the previous estimate of oil leakage of about 1 1,000 barrels per day should be accurate.

Oil leakage treatment

In order to prevent the oil slick from drifting to the coast of the United States, relief workers set out to experiment with burning oil. Disaster relief workers sealed thousands of liters of leaked crude oil in the fence, moved it to the sea farther from the coast, and ignited it in a "controllable way". Coast Guard spokesperson Sheri Ben-Iesau said that if the "burning oil" effect is good that day, disaster relief personnel may implement a larger-scale "burning oil" operation.

By 20: 20 10/0 local time on April 28th, the tentacles of the oil slick had reached the sea area 37 kilometers away from the coast of Louisiana. Charlie Henry, an expert from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States, predicted that the oil slick may drift to the Mississippi River Delta later on the 30th. Louisiana Governor Bobby Gindl called on the federal government to provide more assistance. Kindel said that a coastal wildlife sanctuary in Louisiana may be hit by the oil slick. Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama have set up tens of thousands of meters of inflatable fences near the coast to form a defense line against the invasion of oil slick.

The blocking operation continues. BP's previous attempt to activate the leak-proof door with an underwater robot failed. Engineers are scheduled to drill a relief well on the 29th to contain oil leakage, which is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars and the construction period will last for several months. Engineers also consider building a cover device to cover the oil slick, and then pumping the oil slick to the ship.

Accident escalation

On May 29th, 20 10, the "top-killing method" that was thought to be able to control the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico before August 20th10 failed. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has further escalated, and people's assessment of this disaster has become more pessimistic. "The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has become the worst ecological disaster in American history." Carol Brauner, White House energy and climate change policy adviser, said on May 30th that if all existing methods to plug the leaking oil well failed, the oil spill might not stop until the relief well was built in August.

"The daily oil leakage may be close to 800,000 gallons, which is likely to be close to 1 10,000." According to the Associated Press, after investigating the blowout situation in the Gulf of Mexico, some scientists said that the amount of crude oil leaked in the Gulf of Mexico was at least twice the original estimate, and the highest was more than five times. According to the report of American Cable Broadcasting Corporation, the oil spill amounts to 65,438+2,000 to 20,000 barrels per day.

On June 23, 20 10, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in the United States worsened again: the underwater device originally used to control the oil spill point was removed for maintenance due to failure, and the tumbling crude oil spewed out again after being partially suppressed for several weeks, continuing to pollute the vast waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Stop success.

20 10, 10, the video screenshot taken by the monitoring camera of the oil spill well in the Gulf of Mexico shows that there is no sign of crude oil leakage after the new oil control device is installed in the oil spill well. Nearly three months after the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, BP announced on June 5438+05 that the new oil control device had successfully covered the underwater oil spill point, "no crude oil will flow into the Gulf of Mexico".

According to American media reports, after the new oil control cover seals the oil spill, it is necessary to observe whether this will cause oil spills in other parts of the well.

BP executives have previously said that even if the new device can completely control the oil spill, BP will continue to drill relief wells, because this is the most reliable way to permanently block the leaking oil well.