Skip Navigation Minerals Management Service Minerals Management Service MMS Home pagesSearchMMS Topic IndexAbout MMSWhat’s NewOffshore Energy and Minerals Management United States Department of the Interior
TA&R Home PageTA&R International Home PagesTA&R Oil Spill Research HomeTA&R Research Projects HomeTA&R Workshops HomeTA&R Safety Home
Project Number 32
Date of Summary June 30, 1984
Subject Recapture of Oil from Blowing Wells
Performing Activity Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Principal Investigator Dr. Jerome Milgram
Contracting Agency Minerals Management Service
Estimated Completion Complete
Description The objective was to perform a theoretical and experimental investigation into the collection of oil from a blowing wellhead.
Progress Complete. In 1979, the Brown and Root `Steel Sombrero` subsea collection device was placed over the blowing Ixtoc I well in Campeche Bay, Mexico. Subsequent experiments on collectors were performed in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology laboratory at 1:20 scale. Confirmatory field experiments were performed at 1:4 scale, in the Navy underwater acoustic test facility at Bugg Spring, Florida. Results determined conditions for collecting various percentages of oil. One design, the `double collector`, was configured for excess gas choking the collector making it inefficient. The new configuration uses two concentric collectors and separate risers. As the center collector becomes gas choked, the excess gas spills outward into the outer collector, lifting the blowing oil through it. Test results indicate collection efficiencies of over 90% using the double collector positioned twenty feet above the wellhead. Additional parts of this study include bubble plume dynamics (partially supported by the industry), and methods for suspending a collection system from a large tanker. See Project No. 85. A documentary film is available.
Reports
AA (29 pages) File in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) . Milgram, J. H., Determination of Methods for Collecting Oil as a Subsurface Location Above a Blowout, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, October, 1979.
AB (65 pages) File in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) . Milgram, J. H., Burgess, J. J., Subsea Collection of Oil from a Well Blowout, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, received undated, July 1981.
AC (28 pages) File in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) . Milgram, J. H., VanHouten, R. J., Plumes from Subsea Well Blowouts, Proceedings from the Behavior of Offshore Structures, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, August 1982.
AD (32 pages) File in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) . Milgram, J. H., The Collection of Oil from Subsea Well Blowouts, Presented at the Oil Spill Symposium, Oslo, Norway, December 1982.
AE (23 pages) File in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) . Milgram, J. H., Measurements of the Floor in a Relatively Large Bubble Plume, Presented at the Oil Spill Symposium, Oslo, Norway, December 1982.
AF (46 pages) File in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) . Milgram, J. H., Mean Flow in Round Bubble Plumes, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Volume 188, 1983.
AG (10 pages) File in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) . Burgess, J. J., Milgram, J. H., Experiments with Scale Models of Oil Collectors for Subsea Well Blowouts, Applied Ocean Research, Volume 5, No. 1, 1983.
AH (10 pages) File in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) . Milgram, J. H., VonAlt, J., Burgess, J. J., Experiments with Scale Model of Oil Collectors for Subsea Well Blowouts, Applied Ocean Research, Volume 5, No. 1, 1983.
AI (6 pages) File in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) . Milgram, J. H., Burgess, J. J., Measurements of the Surface Flow Above Bubble Plumes, Applied Ocean Research, Volume 6, No. 1, 1984.
AJ (5 pages) File in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) . Milgram, J. H., Erb, P. R., How Floaters Respond to Subsea Blowouts, Petroleum Engineer, pp. 64-72, June 1984.
 

Privacy | Disclaimers | Accessibility | Topic Index | FOIA

Last Updated: 07/23/2008, 08:02 AM