Poem

Dynamic Positioning
BY JULIANA SPAHR
It is dynamic positioning that
Allows a semi-submersible the
Ability to hover there over
The well. It is a thirty-six inch tube,
A casing, that extends down to allow
The drill and bit to be rotated there;
The drill then spudding in; the seafloor, dark,
And giving way. It is a thick column
Of drilling mud that keeps natural gas
And oil beneath the seafloor while the well
Is capped and it is a cement that
Fills in the casing so the drill pipe stays
Unmoving, stable, in this ever moving sea.
It is a sort of drilling mud that is
Then pumped through the drill pipe and out through
The drill bit then up through the casing and
Then back up to the oil rig in the space
Between the drill pipe and the inner wall.
It is a blowout preventer, a series of valves
That seal off the excessive pressure should
The wellhead kick then blowout. There are all
These variables. Various valves. Pressures.
Buoyancies. Mixes of cements. Currents. Claims.
Humans. Bow spring. Top plug. Shoe track. Floatshoe.
I could go on and on here calling the
New muses of innovation, common
Vocabulary, that covers over the
Elaborate simplicity of this,
This well, Macondo well, was drilled by
Deepwater Horizon and it went through
Five thousand feet, through the abyssal zones,
The epipelagic with its sunlight
The mesopelagic with its twilight
The bathypelagic with its midnight
Then where the sea meets floor, the deep ocean,
A blowout preventer there with the fish,
The darker fish, the large detritevars
That feed on the drizzle of the moulted
Exoskeletons, the carnivores, snipe eels
Big lantern fish, and zooplankton, corals.

This well then went on reaching for the oil
Another thirteen thousand feet. When it hits
The pay zone, down through it, down deeper, deep.
This well, Macondo well, was exploratory.
This story then begins with other wells,
But I will tell the story of This Well:
In April twenty ten, the setting south
And east of Louisiana's long coast.
It begins with a round of tests, some done
And some avoided. An environmental
Impact and blowout plan declared to be
Not necessary. Drilling easy. Then
On April twenty, bled off five barrels
Of fluid, reduced drill pressure. No flow.
At noon, a drill pipe goes in hole so as
To begin mud displacement. Seawater
Then pumped in to displace mud. Kill line
Not bled. It goes on like this. Partial lab
Results, a circulation pressure that
Did not yet match the modeling results
And yet cement job pumped. Fluid returns
Observed. Bottom plug ruptured. Still the
Cement is pumped so it bumps top wiper plug
At twelve thirty. Then two pressure tests.
The drill pipe run in hole to eight thousand
And three hundred and sixty seven feet.
So mud displacement starts, the seawater
Is pumped, then the spacer, then the fresh
Water. The kill line opened and pressure then
Decreased. Drill pipe pressure increased.
The kill line shut in. Mud offloading done.
It goes on. Drill pipe pressure. Kill line open.
Then drill pipe pressure high again. Then seaWater is pumped. Kill line full. Kill line
Opened, bled to mini trip tank. Flow
Is stopped. Kill line monitored. It
Is then open. No flow. Considered
A good test. Blowout preventer openEd, seawater then pumped down the drill
Pipe to displace the mud and spacer from

The riser. It is nine o'clock. The flow
Out from the well increased. Trip tank then
Emptied. Then fluids discharged overboard. Pumps
Restarted. Drill pipe pressure on constant
Increase. It goes on like this. Pump number
Two started. Pressure spike. Then pumps two, three,
And four are shut down. Pump one still online.
Then pumps three, four restarted. Pressure buildIng, pump two. Pumps shut down. First pump three, four,
Then one. Then drill pipe pressure fluctuates.
Increases. Then decreases. Then again
Increases. Then held briefly, then again
Decreases. A repair begins. At some
Moment hydrocarbons enter the botTom of the well undetected and rise
Inside the wellbore, growing quickly as
They meet the lower pressure of the surFace, heavy drill mud, other fluids, seaWater, all pushed by the rising and
Expanding gases followed by more,
By high pressure oil, gases, other fluIds, all there rising, swelling in
The wellbore, all there, pushing from the
Reservoir. It is almost at ten
O'clock when mud begins its overflowIng of the line and then on the rig floor.
It is almost at ten o'clock when mud
Then shoots up through the derrick. It is almost
At ten o'clock, diverter shut so that
The gas and drilling fluid could be routed
To the baffle plates, the poorboy degassEr, then the lower annual prevEnter is activated. The drill pressUre, the volumes of gases, fluids, drillIng mud, seawater, then is steadily inCreasing. And it begins again. Or beGins some more. First as mud. A mud that roarIng, rained. Then the gas as it dischargeIng, hissing, the poorboy degasser fill-
Ing. Next the first gas alarm then the othErs. It was then almost close to ten o'
Clock, still when next a roaring noise, a vibRation, engines began rapid increaseIng as also the drill pipe pressure rapIdly increasing as the rig then losIng power, shut down processes then failIng. First explosion on five seconds aftEr. Then explosion again, ten secOnds later. It was not yet ten
O'clock when the mayday call was first made.
The Deepwater Horizon gutted stem
To stern. What happens next ends with eleven
Dead. The rig tethered still to the deepwell.
The shrapnel. The lightbulbs then popping. The
Heat. Hot fireballs. The lifeboats smoke filled ovens.
Some lifeboats left, not yet full. Those left
Behind then jumped in to oil-covered,
Still water and so swam away. Some died:
Jason Anderson. Bubba Burkeen. Shane
M. Roshto. Donald Clark. Wyatt Kemp. Karl
Dale Kleppinger. Gordon Lewis Jones. Keith
Blair Manuel. Dewey Revette. Adam
Weise. Stephen Ray Curtis. I will not tell
You their lives, their loves, their young children, their
Relationship to oil. Our oil. The well
Exploded. They then died. Some swam away.
Some floated away in boats. Donald Vidrine,
Curt Kuchta, Jimmy Wayne Harrell. I did
Not die. I watched it then burn on a
Flat screen. Anthony Brian Hayward, Steven

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Dynamic Positioning

Big lantern fish, and zooplankton, corals.

Pipe to displace the mud and spacer from

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