We Don't Need Hysteria

There’s a rather hysterical rumor going around, written up at Zero Hedge, being spread by Senator Ben Nelson of Florida and getting some play on Countdown, about the blown oil well in the Gulf having been damaged beneath the sea floor. The theory is that the well casing itself is ruptured and that the well cannot be shut off. Some doomsday prophets are even taking it to the point that it means that the relief wells currently being drilled will not work as planned.

The purveyors of this rumor are saying that the only possible end game, then, is to somehow “implode the sea floor” over the well, whatever the hell that means. I’m guessing they are back to the suggestion of employing nuclear weapons on the fool thing.

Well, everybody just calm the hell down. The relief wells are planned to intersect the blown well where it taps into the reservoir, so any damage to the existing well casing is irrelevant, assuming that it exists, which may very well be the case. It isn’t going to effect plugging the well, because the plan is to plug it at the bottom.

My concern is that the relief wells, after drilling down some 18,000 feet and aiming for a well bore which is only some 20 inches in diameter, might miss the damned target. There have been a few mentions from oil company representatives that hitting the bore is by no means guaranteed on the first try, but nobody is talking about that. I guess we are operating on the principle that brave talk, how the relief wells are the final answer that will solve the problem in August for sure, will prevent failure.

In any event, the well will be plugged, ruptured casing or not, and we definitely and absolutely do not need to use any nuclear weapons to do it, nor do we need to “implode the floor” of the Gulf of Mexico by whatever means.