Visualizing 50,000 oil barrels

Demonstration of the Unreal game engine, using 50,000 barrels:


RELATED: Real life art project using "only" 13,000 barrels. (look for the tiny little people)
The Wall

It's scary to think that BP estimates the oil spill in the gulf could be leaking as much as 100,000 barrels a day.
EDIT: That estimate is if the blowout preventer is removed. The current spill rate estimate is 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day. Thanks for the corrections, folks!

Fuu- crazy when think about it like that, and not just numbers.

Where did you hear that number, 100k barrels per day? The current estimates are not that high that I have seen.

Why doesn't the pool of barrels grow as more barrels fall into it?

Mighty putty would have fixed the leak a long time ago.

Here's another one using the Unreal engine, but with 25,000 barrels.. Not sure why there's a big pillar in there though.


And here's ten thousand barrels in the Crysis engine:

pullbangdead said:

Where did you hear that number, 100k barrels per day? The current estimates are not that high that I have seen.

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Document Shows BP Estimates Spill up to 100,000 Bpd - ABC News
http://globalwarming.house.gov/files/WEB/flowrateBP.pdf

There was a report that leaked from an "insider" suggested that AS MUCH as 100K could be spilling per day. Speculation, but still something to consider.

from what I've read. BP's 100k estimate was "if the blowout preventer was removed" from what I have read on this. 100k barrels per day of leakage requires the well is producing twice as much as any other well in the gulf of mexico. which is quite unlikely, but not impossible.

StridAst said:

from what I've read. BP's 100k estimate was "if the blowout preventer was removed" from what I have read on this. 100k barrels per day of leakage requires the well is producing twice as much as any other well in the gulf of mexico. which is quite unlikely, but not impossible.

Click to expand...

Exactly.

pseudolobster said:

Document Shows BP Estimates Spill up to 100,000 Bpd - ABC News
http://globalwarming.house.gov/files/WEB/flowrateBP.pdf

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From the article you link:

BP spokesman Toby Odone said the document appeared to be genuine but the estimate applied only to a situation in which a key piece of equipment called a blowout preventer is removed.

"Since there are no plans to remove the blowout preventer, the number is irrelevant," BP spokesman Toby Odone said.

The document appears to estimate the highest potential flow of oil if key components of the well fail. The document does not indicate that the 100,000 barrels per day is BP's estimate of the actual amount flowing from the ruptured Gulf of Mexico well.

The document states, "If BOP (blowout preventer) and wellhead are removed and if we have incorrectly modeled the restrictions -- the rate could be as high as ~ 100,000 barrels per day up the casing or 55,000 barrels per day up the annulus (low probability worst cases)"

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pullbangdead said:

Exactly.

From the article you link:

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Ah, okay, that makes sense. Still, 35,000 to 60,000 barrels is an awful lot.

Could be as much as 5 times this amount per day:

I watched the 25,000 barrel vid the other day, its an insane amount to wrap your head around

These are very interesting ways to visualize the sheer amount that is pouring out each day. Thanks for posting this.

It is still a lot coming out.

But in good news, their latest capture efforts are getting better all the time. They're currently capturing over 20k barrels per day with the latest capping method, and increasing that capacity all the time. According to current plans, they will have the ability to capture over 50k barrels per day by next week, and 80k by mid-July. They're replacing the current cap, which seals on the cut riser tube with rubber, by physically unbolting the cut riser tube from the BOP and bolting a newly-designing cap/capture system in its place. This will fix the leaky seals, allowing them to capture more oil without water getting into the mix.

Also, another clarification, these current flow numbers are much higher than the initial flow numbers, because the flow is increasing. BP wasn't lying about the lower flow numbers, the numbers have just been getting higher. Here's a good explanation of why: The Oil Drum | BP's Deepwater Oil Spill - Why the Flow Rates are Increasing and Open Thread 2. So as the flow is increasing, they are still increasing their ability to capture more.

Also, the relief wells are still coming along on-schedule.

Still quite the mess though, but things look to be finally turning the corner. Now if we can just avoid hurricanes for a couple more months....

Grix said:

Why doesn't the pool of barrels grow as more barrels fall into it?

Click to expand...

Yeah I wondered that too... Apparently he tweaked the physics so that the barrels wouldn't go bouncing and flying all over the place. (He says so in the comments of one of these barrel videos.) I imagine he turned down the spring coefficient to the point where if the barrels hit each other over a certain speed they will overlap on top of one another, occupying the same space, not having enough "bounciness" to move the rest of the pile.

PL what kind of computer would it take to run those games like that?