[NewCandle] Plug the damn hole!

[Keith Nagel]

Hi All,

Last night, I was ruminating over the Gulf Coast oil spill.
This thing is shaping up to be the worst spill in US history.
BP is, as the kids say, epic failing. 

So I am thinking about the problems with the previous solutions,
all of which seem to revolve around the buildup of methane
clathrates inside the pipes used to draw oil away from the well
head.

It does then strike my perhaps naive mind "Why not take advantage
of that fact? Put a blower pipe down as deep into the well as possible,
and pump cold sea water into the well. The outgoing methane
will react with the injected water, and the resulting ice will
slowly accumulate on the pipe wall and close the well. The
nozzle of the blower pipe would point back up-stream so the sea
water would flow up and across the well pipe inner wall. This
to prevent clogging of the blower and promote ice formation
on the wall.".

It might take a day or two for the ice to close it off, as
we have seen with the other tests, but it seems a sure thing.

Any thoughts on this? Any of you knuckleheads know some petro
people I might kick this around with? Or is there an obvious
reason why this scheme won't work?

K.