5 ms·

I've always wondered why they don't just intersect the relief wells with the original well closer to the surface (don't have to drill as much). Is there a techn

• po 16y ago
  That's a good question. I assumed it was because there is a sleeve pipe that goes way down and they want to intersect below that. I'm actually pretty amazed that they seem to be able navigate the drill well enough to hit a pipe that deep in the earth.
• ars 16y ago
  They want to do something called a "Bottom Kill" vs. a "Top Kill". So you have to be at the bottom of the well. A top kill doesn't always work, but a bottom kill is pretty guaranteed. The oil pushes whatever material you inject up. So you want to be at the bottom so the material fills the entire pipe.