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http://pesn.com/2010/06/11/9501660_Irrigation-pump-numbers_show_under-reporting_by_BP_and_US-gov/
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Irrigation pump numbers illustrate under-reporting by BP and U.S. govt.
A 4-inch pipe on a tractor PTO-powered pump can crank out around 35,000
barrel-equivalents per day. Considering the length of the Gulf oil gusher
pipe, and the viscosity of the oil, an expert shows that the Coast Guard's
number for the reservoir pressure of 8-9,000 psi is far too low.
by Sterling
D. Allan
Pure Energy Systems News
We all know that BP and the U.S. government have been low-balling the numbers
for just how much oil is spewing from BP's Gulf oil disaster. Doing doing
a comparison to the irrigation pump industry can help show how dishonest they
are being. At least so I thought until I called a professor from a local
university, who ran some numbers for me and also explained the variables
involved.
Paul Noel
sent me a link today to http://gator-pump.com/specs.htm
which shows how much water can be pumped by the various sizes of irrigation
pumps they sell. According to Dale Lemmons, VP of Gator Pump, Inc., who I
spoke with today, their numbers are all engineer tested and certified.
They've been in business for 33 years.
According to the specs overview
sheet, their smallest pump, the Sunfish,
with just a 4 inch pipe, pumps 1150 gallons per minute (gpm) with 35 feet of
head (uphill), using a 540 revolution per minute power takeoff from a tractor.
(Note, the numbers for flow vary depending on head, horsepower, and rotation
speed of the PTO.)
Sketch of the general design of Gator
Pump, Inc.'s PTO trailer irrigation pump
Here's the math. 1150 gallons per minute x 60 minutes per hour x 24
hours per day = 1,656,000 gallons per day. Divide that by 42 gallons per
barrel (of
oil) = 39,429 barrels of water per day. That's for their smallest pump.
That's close to the biggest numbers that have been published for the Gulf oil
gusher rate of flow by the mainstream press, who tend to play lapdog for the
corrupt powers that be.
According to BP, the gusher pipe has a diameter of 21 inches.
Now let's apply the same math for the largest irrigation pump that Gator Pump,
Inc. sells. According to the specs
overview sheet, their Whale,
which has a 24-inch diameter -- three inches larger than the BP gusher pipe --
pumps 17,000 gallons per minute (gpm) with 15 feet of head (uphill), using a 540
revolution per minute power takeoff from a tractor. 17,000 x 60 x 24 / 42
= 582,857 barrels per day. That's twice the amount of the Exxon-Valdeez
spill every single day.
Seeing that, I was curious to know the pressure behind this irrigation
pump. That was when I called and talked to Dale Lemmons, who said the
pressure in the Whale pump was measured by the Engineers at 10 psi.
Here's the Engineering report for the Whale irrigation pump.
There are some important differences between the scenario of an irrigation
pump being powered by a tractor, and an under-sea oil gusher powered by
tremendous pressures. We've heard numbers in the range of 20,000 to 50,000
psi for the oil gusher, but as is to be expected, the mainstream press shows
numbers much smaller. An interview
that Alex Jones had with Lindsey Williams today gave that range of numbers as
well, his sources including a former oil CEO as well as some BP personnel.
According to an ABC News interview
with US Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, published today, Allen said that the pressure down at the gusher is estimated at between 8 and 9,000
psi.
TAPPER: What is the wellhead pressure, do we know?
ALLEN: Ah, well, we havent tested it in a while, I can tell you
during the Top Hat evolution let me start at the reservoir, down at
the reservoir where the well was drilled to varied somewhere between 8-9,000
PSI, pounds per square inch. During the Top Kill evolution, I think at the
bottom of the blowout preventer, somewhere around 3500 PSI.
TAPPER: Is it possible that it is worse than that?
ALLEN: We wont know. In fact thats the reason we need
the pressure readings.
TAPPER: Are there thresholds impossible to control -- that would
be above 20,000 PSI example?
ALLEN: Yeah, there are thresholds at even the well bore cant
contain that kind of pressure. One of the reasons we didnt move to cap the
well completely after the Top Kill failed was we didnt know what the
condition of the well board was. If you keep jamming mud down there, or you
cap it completely, put pressure back down the well bore, the one thing you
dont want to do is have hydrocarbons or oil get outside the well or into
what we call the formation or the strata and somehow make its way to the
surface, where you would have an uncontrollable leak at that point. You
want to guard against that at all costs.
According to the local professor of Mechanical Engineering, and an expert in
fluid dynamics, the primary driver for flow rate is the pressure difference
between the reservoir and where the fluid emerges. Pipe length, bends,
fluid viscosity, density, and temperature also all play a determining role, in
addition to the diameter of the pipe and of the opening.
For his calculations, he used the following information:
- Reservoir pressure = 8,000 psi
- Pressure at rupture = 3,500 psi
- Elevation from well to rupture = 25,000 ft [this is the primary point of
friction]
- Pipe diameter = 21 in.
- Density of crude = 840 kg/m^3
- Viscosity = 2-4 Pa-s [viscosity and density using Azeri crude as typical,
according to BP's
website (density is addressed on page 3; see near the bottom of page 5 for viscosity)]
- Temperature 1 mile down: "Almost all of the deep ocean temperatures are only a little warmer than freezing (39°F)."
(savethesea.org)
Here is what he wrote in response:
Based on the numbers you gave me the pressure in the reservoir is insufficient to overcome the hydrostatic head
and there is no flow.
Obviously there is something wrong with this because we know that there is a lot of flow and this means the value of 8,000 psi in the well is too low. All other numbers seem to make pretty good sense.
Using a value of 20,000 psi in the reservoir I estimate, based on accepted analysis, a flow rate of nominally 65,000 barrels/day. This assumes a straight pipe and oil at nominally 40 deg. F.
If the pressure in the well is as high as 70,000 (this seems very very
unlikely), I estimate the flow rate at nominally 185,000 barrels/day.
The pressure in the well is the most important parameter. As you can see, the estimates very significantly based on best estimates for the well pressure.
Without a better estimate for the well pressure than we have, I don't think it is possible to do better than this.
65,000 barrels a day seems to be in line with reports I have seen.
If you have a better estimate on the well pressure I can update my analysis.
One thing that is clear from this expert's analysis is that the reservoir
pressure of 8,000 psi as stated by the Coast Guard admiral is obviously
incorrect, being far to low to push oil through that long of a pipe; and the
numbers being cited from non-mainstream media sources, in the range of 20,000 to
70,000 psi are much more likely for producing the volume of oil that we're
seeing in the Gulf.
# # #
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