Kent Wells Technical Briefing, 5:30PM CDT, 2010/07/16 Transcribed by Steve Friedl [SJFriedl] - steve@unixwiz.net Note: These are on-the-fly paraphrases, not direct quotes! * Introduction by Mr. Ordony (sp?), we have 15 mins on this call. * Kent Wells: Good afternoon/evening everyone. I have to believe that most of you heard Adm. Allen's teleconf earlier today * Mostly will hear same thing from me * Close working relationship with 6-hour consulting group * First relief well finished open-hold ranging run * pulling stuff, drilling 30 more feet, then another ranging run * Intercept point at end of july, kill/cement after that * Continuing with monitoring well, no evidence of no integrity * Let me talk about how the test is going: it's going as planned, pressure continues to slowly rise as predicted by some of the modeling work * First, measuring temperature of the casing just below the BOP * When the well is flowing, the heat that comes up w/ oil+gas from deep down warms up the wellbore, so when there is no flow the temp decreases * Recording temp while flowing, now when it's stopped * Temp has stabilized to ambient - this is good * One thing to look for, stuff coming up and then looping back down the casing. We don't think this is happening * Acoustic sensors, listening for sounds associated with flow. Don't hear anything * 2 ROVs around the wellbore, each scanning 180degrees. Watching for any breach - the most sensitive area * They have yet to see anything * [Kent wells tech briefing] * 4 ROVs scanning around 4 quadrants around the well looking for seepage * Ran seismic runs, this morning second one. Got prelim analysis, haven't seen ANY indication from 1st to 2nd that there is oil or gas escaping * [emph on ANY] * No evidence that the well lacks integrity. W'ere monitoring everything * Working w/ NOAA and others to scan seafloor, coupla other vessels to help * Need to be careful w/ too many vessels that frequencies don't intefere * Let me talk about tests and pressures * Talked over time: if we ran this test and the pressure didn't get to 5kpsi, it would be clear that we had no integrity * We also said that if pressure >8kpsi (really 7500psi) it would say we do have integrity under any scenario * Between 6-7.5 pounds there are a coupla scenarious that could explain this, have to analyse * You heard Adm Allen talk about depetion: when a well flows for some time like this, pressure won't build up as much * Also, if there is no integrity but no depletion, that could explain it too * Done modelling under numerous scenarious * Pressure buildup we've seen is consistent with well integrity and full integrity. But these asre very subtle changes, the longest we monitor these trends the more confidence we have * The longer we have no sign of no integrity, the more we think we may * 6720psi * build 2psi per hour * that follows the models of a depeleted reservoir * monitoring it carefully, consulting w/ unified command and govt and ourselves, every 6 hours * Poised if we need to move immediately if we see something bad * Start containment in controlled manner can be done quickly [didn't say how quickly] * initially would involve venting to the gulf, we hope we don't need to * open to questions * Q from Times Picayune * Are you still in a position tomorrow at the 48 hour point to declare that the well had integrity? * Second, if well is in fact shut in going forward, what does this say about efforts to determine the flow rate * A: Adm Allen said it: every 6 hours we look at all info, make decisions going forward * only answering one question each [skipped the good question] * Q from AP: Anything we can be watchful for this evening? Any major decisions? * (they keep asking about this 48 hour thing, it's now event based) * A IF we noticed an anomaly, we would immediately issue a press release * No news is good news * Q from KHOU-TV: What's the liklihood of, and what goes into the decision-makiing process, if the test goes to 48 hours and you think the well has integrity. Produce or not produce? * We will look at every piece of data we have, looking to indicate any lack of integrity in the well, will look at what pressure is doing, what can we learn by leaving the well shut in, won't presuppose what decisions we will make. We'll look carefully * Q from Hou Chronicle: Understand that every 6 hours is re-evaluation. Is it accurate to say that at 48 hours we could see the well remaining shut in until the relief wells? Is it on the table that the well will remain shut in? * A We've agreed to do this 48 hour test, what we do from that point forward is made by unified comamnd. Yes, a possibility. * (they have both answered that a bunch of times) * Q from CNN: I understand depletion model, but based on what you've seen, what do you think the pressure will max out in this well? * A Don't want to be too accurate on that, better positioned tomorrow. Building about 2psi/hr * We should expect that this will decline, less and less buildup, but will continue to build up to final pressure over a number of days or weeks. * Should be able to extrapolate better in a day or two * Q Reuters: I just wann be really clear on this 48 hours * (ugh) * If results are still inconclusive, test could continue? Do you stop the test and decide to collect or keep shut in? * A It's a condition-based process, no decision has been made about what will be done at the end of 48 hours * A No decision has been made about what we do at the end of 6 or 8 hours * Goals are to minimize polution and minimize risk * what he SHOULD say: Give up on 48 hours * Q ABC News: Does this mean that the pressure of 6700 psi means that the flow rate is less than we thought? * A Dunno what flow rate you're referring to, nor have we been paying attention to flow rates during test. Monitoring pressures * Want to avoid loss of integirty * Last question from Bloomburg * Q - Rise of pressure is consistent with model for depeltion. If this were a breach, how would the pressure curves be different? * A If this were a real breach, pressure would rise and then flatline. That could happen at different points * More importantly, you might see a drop - that's what we're watching for * Very encouraged when we didn't see that, especially early on * Just trying to be really extra careful, not jumping to conclusions that we absolutely have integrity * [that's all] Next call, 7:30AM CDT tomorrow