Ed - The Oil Well Consultant . . ;-))

Life with the Jansky's :-))
An interview (10 MByte) (around 1950 ??) with my father interviewing
- VeraLouise and Carl Jansky, on their oil lease east of Ferdig, Montana
- Mr. Putman (pumper, long term employee of Carl's) and wife
- piano interlude at end by my mother, added by my sister, Reta Nagle


>  As a deep thinking engineer/scientist ED, what 
>  solution can you suggest for the Gulf of Mexico 
>  BP oil spill?

AH - well - gotta light my pipe and think -
   OOPS - sorry about that - forgot about the natural gas !!
    Well, we can grow new eye brows, lashes and arm hair :-))
 
The following is my resume  ;-))
     and/or  tale

After my first bout with college, about 3 years,
   I went to live with cousin VeraLouise & Carl Jansky 
              and their 8 kids in Ferdig, Montana
      and to "work" in Ray German's machine shop 
     on a dying oil field surrounding Oilmont, Montana.
Yup -  Oilmont seems to still exist -
   Lets see about Ferdig -
      - still a named cross-road on Google's map
   OK - it was about the same size "way back when"

So - I've spent maybe 20 hours watching the
   old "cable tool" style oil drilling rigs
   probe for "new" oil about 1,500 feet down
       from *equipment on the surface*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drilling_rig#Cable_tool_drilling
   Well, the equipment was bigger to drill deeper -
        - 1,500 feet instead of say 300 feet -
     not mounted on a truck,
   Many truck loads of greasy wood and metal.
      the drill rig must have been 50 years old
           about the time they found the oil field -
        and incredibly rickety 
          - Everything wiggled, shimmied, and rattled
              the worn bearings for the big "bull wheel"
                seemed to have at least an inch of slop. -
      You wouldn't believe !!!
         Looking back, I don't believe what I remember -
  And they could have problems -
     One well had a bit stuck in the ground
         (did the ancient, worn cable break??
          or did they drop something extra down the hole??
              or both??)
     and they were struggling to "fish" it out,
        without collapsing the rickety "derrick" -

Also have spent happy hours watching 
   the much larger, potent, expensive rotary rigs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drilling_rig#Hydraulic_rotary_drilling

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drilling_rig_(petroleum)
 (The Texas company bought up a dying oil lease,
     spent 4 months drilling (a much deeper hole) with a rotary rig,
     and left - with their secret about finding anything or not.)
And I have started to read
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offshore_drilling

So clearly you have asked the correct person
   about fixing an offshore well problem.    ;-))
"Well", maybe not  ;-))

Ed (my head may be stuck in the ground,
       but I ain't no ostridge) Thelen