Have you ever dug a hole in the sand at the seaside, and then tried to keep that hole from collapsing as you attempted to make the hole deeper? If the answer is yes, then you can appreciate the difficulties and doing exactly the same thing 5000m below the seabed. Yesterday we dropped a funnel shaped cone down the drill string and into the hole to try and stabilize the drill site.

 

 

 

 

 

Today we are going to drop another funnel with a longer tube underneath and cement the two together.

 

 

Placing the funnel around the drill pipe.

Welding the two halves together over the moonpool.