Press Release - July 13, 2010

Invention — Oil well blowout contingency plug and method for stopping a subsea oil gusher

American Energy Independence website creator, Ron Bengtson, has filed a U.S. patent application for an invention that will plug an out-of-control subsea oil well.

On April 20, 2010 the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil drilling rig, positioned about 40 miles off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico, became the site of the worst oil disaster in U.S. history. A deep-sea oil well, located 5,000 feet beneath the rig on the ocean floor, blew out creating an oil gusher of unprecedented force, expelling oil and gas up the one mile high riser to the rig and continued upward another 250 feet over the rig, before exploding and consuming Deepwater Horizon in flames.

Eleven crew members were killed. Firefighters were unable to extinguish the flames. On April 22, 2010 Deepwater Horizon capsized and sank to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Oil continued to gush out of the well at the seafloor – about 60,000 barrels per day. For nearly 90 days, all attempts to plug the well were unsuccessful.

At this time, no option exists for plugging an uncontrolled deep-water well quickly and completely. Current discussions appear to be focused on prevention for future wells. There is no doubt that better technology will be developed to ensure prevention, including strict safety standards and enforced inspections. But if prevention fails again, in spite of all measures taken, what can be done quickly to stop an out-of-control deep-sea oil gusher? Drilling a relief well requires three months or longer.

The problem is the immense water pressure at the deep ocean floor. The surrounding pressure at a wellhead 5,000 feet below the surface of the water is about 2,000 pounds per square inch (psi). To put that in perspective, if you mark an area on your floor that is three feet square, or one square yard, and if you could somehow apply 2,000 psi over the entire surface of that area without destroying the foundation underneath, the square yard area would weigh 2,592,000 pounds or 1, 296 tons. Designing equipment to withstand such pressure, and performing work under such conditions is an engineering challenge that perhaps is greater than what NASA has faced in developing space technology and performing space operations.

In addition to the surrounding water pressure, the pressure of the oil reservoir deep beneath the ocean floor can be huge, due to the great depth of the reservoir and because of the immense water pressure on the ocean floor pressing down on the geological formation housing the reservoir. The initial oil pressure at a deep subsea wellhead can exceed 10,000 psi, and at greater subsea depths, say two miles from the ocean surface to the seafloor, oil pressure at the wellhead, stemming from the reservoir, could conceivably exceed 20,000 psi.

This following paper discloses an apparatus and method [invention] that, when built and operated by someone skilled in the art, will plug (or cap) and stop the flow of oil and gas gushing from an out-of-control subsea well, at any seafloor depth where remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) can operate and a well can be drilled, including wells with a wellhead oil pressure exceeding 20,000 psi.

http://www.AmericanEnergyIndependence.com/invention/AEI-wellplug-paper.pdf
size: 1.3 MB - 24 pages

For more information Contact:
Ron Bengtson
Phone: (208) 895-0576
Email: Ron@AmericanEnergyIndependence.com
Website: http://www.AmericanEnergyIndependence.com
Boise, Idaho
USA

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