Scrutable

A pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico has ruptured "sending flames boiling to the surface in the Gulf waters."

Video can be seen here. What the boats spraying water expected to achieve that the ocean hadn't I'm not quite sure, but the report above says they were able to somehow get it under control.

That's bonkers

From what I can tell the field is one of Mexico's biggest oil and gas fields. The field is in 50-100 m of water; so reasonably shallow. But I've done a fair amount of consequence modelling for pipeline releases and even at that depth that's a huge leak to be causing the sea to boil up in that way.

What's a bit more worrying is where the ignition source came from. I'd expect it to be either the drilling platform a short distance away or a stand-by or supply vessel attending the platform. An unignited gas cloud from the release could have reached the platform and the fire worked back to the sea surface, but I'd expect the platform to look a bit more damaged than from what I can make out in the Twitter clip.

Fishnut wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 02, 2021 10:38 pm

A pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico has ruptured "sending flames boiling to the surface in the Gulf waters."

Video can be seen here. What the boats spraying water expected to achieve that the ocean hadn't I'm not quite sure, but the report above says they were able to somehow get it under control.

The mist from the sprayed water is good at taking the heat from the flames in the air*? And enough steam could suffocate the flames?

*in a way that the sea underneath isn't because of where the water droplets are.

Martin_B wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 03, 2021 3:20 am

What's a bit more worrying is where the ignition source came from. I'd expect it to be either the drilling platform a short distance away or a stand-by or supply vessel attending the platform. An unignited gas cloud from the release could have reached the platform and the fire worked back to the sea surface, but I'd expect the platform to look a bit more damaged than from what I can make out in the Twitter clip.

There's plenty of lightning around this time of year.

Update in WaPo:

Fire on surface of Gulf of Mexico is extinguished, but questions about pipeline leak remain...

Angel Carrizales, who heads the Mexican agency charged with regulating pipeline safety, tweeted that the incident “did not generate any spill.” That claim drew some skepticism, given that something other than water had to be present on the ocean’s surface for it to ignite.

Pemex said Friday that the company would “carry out a root cause analysis of this incident” and that no one had been injured. The company provided few other details about the leak...

As for thunder and lightning:

The fire took place in an area known as Ku-Maloob-Zaap, which is home to Pemex’s most productive oil fields. According to Reuters, an internal incident report stated that an electrical storm and heavy rains had damaged key machinery before the early-morning leak.

bmforre wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 03, 2021 5:49 pm

Update in WaPo:

Fire on surface of Gulf of Mexico is extinguished, but questions about pipeline leak remain...

Angel Carrizales, who heads the Mexican agency charged with regulating pipeline safety, tweeted that the incident “did not generate any spill.” That claim drew some skepticism, given that something other than water had to be present on the ocean’s surface for it to ignite.

Pemex said Friday that the company would “carry out a root cause analysis of this incident” and that no one had been injured. The company provided few other details about the leak...

The pipeline was said to be gas. Once released the gas either burns or disperses. To be honest, burning it is preferable, both for a carbon footprint (methane is a worse greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide) and safety (a fire is fine if you are outside of the dangerous thermal envelope, but an unignited gas cloud can cause potential explosions). There wouldn't be any spill* unless the pipeline also contained liquids, but I think that there are separate oil pipelines in the field.** I wouldn't be surprised if there was no spill, which doesn't mean the same as no pollution!

I'd be surprised if the boats spraying water on the fire were there for more than show and/or trying to protect the nearby drilling platform. The way you fight that sort of gas fire is turn off the supply (isolate the pipeline) and let it burn itself out.

* Spill in this sense meaning an oil slick on the sea surface.

** It might sound more expensive to have two separate pipelines, but it's often cheaper and easier to operate with some processing offshore and then separate vapour and liquid pipelines because two-phase flow in pipelines can be a real ball-ache.

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