Blown-out oil well casing insertion and plugging harpoon. Commanding Officer U.S. Coast Guard Station, New Orleans (Please pass to Adm.

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1 MUDGETT MARINE SURVEYING AND AIR SAFTEY INVESTIGATORS.INC MARINE SURVEYING INVESTIGATION AND CONTROL OF MARINE, AIATION AND MACHINERY LOSSES 170 ACACIA WAY. CORONADO, CA Richard L. Mudgett Consultant, Expert Witness Master Mariner USCG Lic. Master # Marine Surveyor (Ret) Certified Surveyor # International Air Investigator Certified Aircraft Investigator #330 June 10, 2010 From: CDR Richard L. Mudgett USN (Ret) To: President of The United States Adm. Thad Allen, USCG CEO Tony Hayward, British Petroleum CEO Hughes Tool Company Publisher, Marine Executive Newsletter Subj: Via: Blown-out oil well casing insertion and plugging harpoon Commanding Officer U.S. Coast Guard Station, New Orleans (Please pass to Adm. Allen) Encl: Draft concept plan for a harpoon like well casing insertion device to control and/or plug an oil well blowout. Dear Sirs: 1. Introduction. The problem is inside that well casing, you have to go inside the well casing to solve the problem. Caps, huts, funnels, umbrellas etc. are not going to solve this problem. Enclosed please find a concept draft of a device which would most probably slow the flow, plug, and control the runaway BP oil well in the Gulf until the drilling mud can be replaced in the well. Currently there is reported a 15,000 foot column of oil flowing at sonic speed up the well casing This immense energy column must be very slowly decelerated and stopped before it can be plugged with drilling mud. Oil will be diverted into its harpoon like head and allowed to bypass the harpoon next to the well casing. After the oil is brought to a halt a hydraulic bladder will be hydraulically inflated and mostly stop the well flow and block the mud from escaping up the well casing. This harpoon device is being submitted in concept form because time is of the essence and 1

2 MUDGETT MARINE SURVEYING AND AIR SAFTEY INVESTIGATORS.INC MARINE SURVEYING INVESTIGATION AND CONTROL OF MARINE, AIATION AND MACHINERY LOSSES 170 ACACIA WAY. CORONADO, CA Richard L. Mudgett Consultant, Expert Witness Master Mariner USCG Lic. Master # Marine Surveyor (Ret) Certified Surveyor # International Air Investigator Certified Aircraft Investigator #330 the design could be computer drafted and readied for manufacture much quicker than I could with my limited resources. 2. Concept. a. This device works the same as a whale harpoon expanding fluke head in that after the pointed and tapered head enters the casing and passes the small groove remaining at the top flange join, the hardened shaped and sharpened flukes expand by spring and/or the estimated 2000 PSI flowing crude oil emitting from the blown out well. The oil flow must be choked off in stages so as to eliminate any dangers of inducing a hydraulic hammer and further damaging the well head. In that the multiple flukes are spaced evenly around the harpoon head, oil would still escape past the harpoon head-to-casing space between the flukes and also the harpoon head is ported behind the fluke recess cavities so that high pressure oil can flow into the hollow harpoon head and up the fitted hollow drill pipe and controlled/throttled from the surface. b. After the harpoon head has been inserted and the expanded fluke s sharpened teeth are pushed into to the top flange grove a long doubled threaded (both inside and outside) sleeve, already threaded on to the harpoon head shank, is screwed down the shank and onto fluke teeth to further drive the teeth into the flange groove and lock them in place. This long sleeve will have an angled interface with the flukes so as to drive the flukes further into the flange grove/well casing. This long sleeve will slowly reduce the crude oil flow in that the space between the harpoon head and well casing will be smaller; more crude oil will be forced through the ports into the hallow harpoon head and up the drill pipe. This first long sleeve has an impact spanner driver attached to its top to be activated by surface air pressure or some other appropriate torque device. 2

3 MUDGETT MARINE SURVEYING AND AIR SAFTEY INVESTIGATORS.INC MARINE SURVEYING INVESTIGATION AND CONTROL OF MARINE, AIATION AND MACHINERY LOSSES 170 ACACIA WAY. CORONADO, CA Richard L. Mudgett Consultant, Expert Witness Master Mariner USCG Lic. Master # Marine Surveyor (Ret) Certified Surveyor # International Air Investigator Certified Aircraft Investigator #330 c. A short internal threaded sleeve, with an attached power spanner, already threaded to the long first sleeve, with a tapered lead is then screwed down the long sleeve entering the well casing and slowly cutting off the escaping crude oil flow around the outside of the harpoon head therein forcing the crude oil into the ports to the inside of the harpoon head and up the drill pipe. The clearance between the short sleeve and the well casing will be determined by a drilling engineer. Consideration should be given to screwing the outside sleeve partially down, entering the casing and centering the harpoon head in the casing prior to screwing the first long sleeve hard onto the flukes and fully expanding them into the grove. However, this might create too much back pressure and stop all the flukes from entering the flange groove. d. The flukes can either be forged or machined of 4330 steel, or equivalent, and hardened to C-55 or 60. The tooth end shall be sharpened so as to dig into the flange groove/well casing as far as possible. They will have an angled-in landing boss to receive the long, threaded first sleeve, with a machined angled-in surface, which will drive and lock the fluke teeth harder into the flange grove/well casing. The butt end of the flukes shall have a radius allowing it to swing into the harpoon head which will have a machined radius so that the harder the harpoon head is pushed up by oil pressure, the harder the butt end of the fluke will drive itself into its receiver radius. The flukes will be held in place by hardened blind hinge pins, locked in place with set screws. The flukes will have elongated hinge pin holes so that they have free movement to settle themselves into their fitted radius socket at their butt end and can be free to move outward to dig into the flange groove/well casing as the harpoon head is thrust up by oil pressure. 3

4 MUDGETT MARINE SURVEYING AND AIR SAFTEY INVESTIGATORS.INC MARINE SURVEYING INVESTIGATION AND CONTROL OF MARINE, AIATION AND MACHINERY LOSSES 170 ACACIA WAY. CORONADO, CA Richard L. Mudgett Consultant, Expert Witness Master Mariner USCG Lic. Master # Marine Surveyor (Ret) Certified Surveyor # International Air Investigator Certified Aircraft Investigator #330 e. If a complete seal of the casing is required the harpoon head is fitted with a hydraulic inflatable bladder which could be activated after the harpoon and both sleeves are in place and the oil flow up the drilling pipe is slowly throttled off. Avoiding a hydraulic hammer cannot be overstressed. The hydraulic bladder could be made of the same material that the air bags on heavy truck suspension are made. If required, a designed break-away shield could be fitted over the bladder surface so as to avoid abrasion during insertion of the harpoon head into the well casing. The bladder would be fitted internally with a high pressure hydraulic supply line from the surface. The bladder would be activated after both sleeves are installed and the oil flow up the drill pipe has been throttled off. f. I do not know at what point the weight and movement of the drill pipe should or would be removed from the harpoon head. That decision should be left up to a drilling engineer as is junk shots, mud and cement insertion. 3. Removal. After the well is brought under control the necessity to remove the harpoon remains. In that the harpoon flukes are lodged into the steel of the upper half of the pipe flange all that is required is to deflate the hydraulic bladder, cut off and remove the flange bolts, unscrew the long fluke locking sleeve and hoist the harpoon from the well casing. 4. Future. In the future the well head emergency shut off valve needs to have a well casing pipe extension (herein Emergency Well Head Extension ) with a flange fitted a few feet above the emergency shut off valve in case the well head assembly again fails to stop the well from running away. On this short Emergency Well Head Extension, below its top flange, male/female tapered slide with a set screw lock and dog-ear for pinning fittings must be welded in place to accommodate the required pre-made emergency tools, brackets and fittings so as to install impact wrenches, saws, drills etc. to remove the flange bolts and separate the flange in the well casing connecting the well head to the drilling platform. A square grove will be machined into the inside of the lower half of the subject flange to accept the harpoon flukes. All tools required to separate the 4

5 MUDGETT MARINE SURVEYING AND AIR SAFTEY INVESTIGATORS.INC MARINE SURVEYING INVESTIGATION AND CONTROL OF MARINE, AIATION AND MACHINERY LOSSES 170 ACACIA WAY. CORONADO, CA Richard L. Mudgett Consultant, Expert Witness Master Mariner USCG Lic. Master # Marine Surveyor (Ret) Certified Surveyor # International Air Investigator Certified Aircraft Investigator #330 pipe flange and operate this quick connect attachment must be constructed so as to be pinned into place and supported by the brackets and dog-ear fittings welded to the Emergency Well Head Extension. All tools and attachments must be operated 100% by an ROV. Prior to the installation of the well head on the well casing, at the well site USCG Inspectors must Certify, witness and take still and moving pictures of the complete installation of the Emergency Well Recovery Attachments onto the Emergency Well Head Extension brackets and dog-ear fittings with the use of only one man s human hands and without any hand tools. The attachments may be derrick/crane lifted. This installation must be fully demonstrated and that the required installation is totally installed within the parameters of the ROV s manipulators and is witnessed by the two USCG Inspectors and the Drilling Rig s Captain who will also be pictured. The required serialized numbered tools and fittings will be pictured as they are placed in bin/bins on the drilling platform and sealed by the USCG Inspector. If the seal is broken, the drilling platform will cease all drilling operations until the above Certification is again repeated and pictured as prescribed. If rectification is required and the Well Head Fitting is installed under the sea a pre-designated matching twin Emergency Well Head Extension may be used for re-certification, only onboard the subject drilling platform. After re-certification, all tools and fittings will again be sealed into bin/bins. There shall be a 0 tolerance on the complete operation and installation of the Emergency Well Recovery Attachments and the unit as a whole. Nothing in/on the Emergency Well Recovery Attachments and unit can be remotely operated except by the ROV. 5

6 MUDGETT MARINE SURVEYING AND AIR SAFTEY INVESTIGATORS.INC MARINE SURVEYING INVESTIGATION AND CONTROL OF MARINE, AIATION AND MACHINERY LOSSES 170 ACACIA WAY. CORONADO, CA Richard L. Mudgett Consultant, Expert Witness Master Mariner USCG Lic. Master # Marine Surveyor (Ret) Certified Surveyor # International Air Investigator Certified Aircraft Investigator #330 Thank you for reviewing this submitted concept. Again, it is submitted in the rough draft form knowing time is of the essence and it would take me days/weeks to make up even a semi finished draft. Petroleum design engineers with their computers should be able to make short work of this concept if it is worthy. If further discussion of this concept is desired I am available by phone, or travel. CDR Richard L. Mudgett USN (Ret) , rlee2391mudz@sbcglobal.net 170 Acacia Way Coronado, CA

7 SLEEVE B Plate # 1 LOCK SLEEVE A HYDRAULIC PRESSURE LINE Hollow Drill Pipe 1, The first of two threaded sleeves is screwed down onto locking lugs 2, The second threaded sleeve is screwed down on the first sleeve so as to minimize the gap between the casing and harpoon head. 3, Small groove at flange join. Hinged and reversing teeth will insert into the small groove and lock the harpoon head in place. Hydraulic Bladder Inflated 4, Heavy bladder like a truck suspension bladder is expanded by hydraulic pressure after HARPOON HEAD is locked into flange groove. Well Casing Well Casing 2000 PSI Oil MUDGETT HARPOON OIL PIPE PLUG

8 Hollow Plate 1A Drill Pipe Oil goes up this pipe Fluke Recesses Blind Pin Hollow Oil Flow Oil Flow

9 Fluke in stowed posistion Plate 1B Sleeve B Lock Sleeve A Fluke in stored position Harpoon Body 2000 PSI Crude Oil Flow Well Casing

10 Fluke in locked position Plate 1C Sleeve B Lock Sleeve A Harpoon Body Fluke in locked position Harpoon Body 2000 PSI Crude Oil Flow Well Casing

11 PLATE #2 TOOTH HAS SHARP POINT Blind Hinge Pins Hollow Drill Pipe 2000 PSI FLUKE IS FREE TO MOVE UP OR DOWN ON HINGE PIN Pipe Flange Groove Tooth Fluke Tooth Fluke Tooth Fluke 2000 PSI OIL FLOW HYDRAULIC DONUT BLADDER HYDRAULIC PRESSURE LINE OIL PIPE PENETRATING HARPOON HEAD

12 Plate # 3 SLEEVE B LOCK SLEEVE A HYDRAULIC PRESSURE Hollow Drill Pipe Hydraulic Bladder Hydraulic Bladder Well Casing 2000 PSI Oil Flow Well Casing MUDGETT HARPOON OIL PIPE PLUG