This just came up on Digg, and its so crazy I just had to post it here:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Oddorama
On a fateful day in 1980 a group of oil drillers were working in a shallow lake in Louisiana probing for oil. A miscalculation sent their drill straight into a large salt mine shaft below the lake’s surface. The hole started at just over a foot in diameter but rapidly widened as the water from the lake above washed away the salt around it. What started out quite simply ended in disaster that no one could have predicted.
Workers above on the oil platform recognized something was wrong and ‘jumped ship’ before the entire platform disappeared below their feet in a growing whirlpool - all in what was supposed to be a shallow lake! Meanwhile, in the salt mines below, workers made their way through flooded tunnels and all managed to (in some cases narrowly) make it out alive. Despite all of the chaos, no one died above or below ground.
Before it was through, the surface whirlpool managed to suck down islands, barge docks, barges, trees, trucks, an entire parking lock and 3.5 billion gallons of water. The flow of water normally leading from the lake into Vermilion Bay was reversed as the lake refilled itself, and also created the largest waterfall in Louisiana history (over 150 feet) as water poured back into the lake. In the process, what started as a ten-foot-deep freshwater lake became a thousand-foot-deep saltwater lake!
As insane as that all is, I can't help but wonder: Which nimrod approved drilling above a salt mine? Nevermind the fact that it was in a lake above a salt mine, but common sense dictates that you shouldn't be drilling down towards a mine in as a separate venture without incredibly intimate communication with the mine below.
Also, it had nothing to do with communication. It had more to do with the lack of sufficient technology at the time to properly direct the drilling operation. It forms a slight corkscrew as it drills and can easily veer off course. When you're talking about wells that are 2800ft deep at time, the slightest deviation can result in a major miss.
edit: this is what the rig consultant told me, that is.
Mar 20, 08
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