Wireline Issue 26 Winter 2013

MARINE BIODIVERSITY

ENVIRONMENT

ROVing reporters The project evolved in the UK in the early 2000s during collaboration between the industry and marine scientists at the NOC on environmental assessment work for BP in the west of Shetland. SERPENT Project leader Daniel says it became clear during that time that there was a unique opportunity to use the offshore infrastructure to pursue more than one kind of exploration. “There were many remotely-operated vehicles (ROVs) in use in UK waters but they weren’t operating 24/7,” says Daniel. “We didn’t have a deep-water science-class submersible facility of any kind at the time in the UK so the ROVs were clearly a resource we could really benefit from.” “We’ve done a huge amount of work in the UK by accessing many hundreds of hours of ROV time that would have cost us millions of pounds.”

Pictured (left) a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and (right) SERPENT scientists in the ROV control van. The SERPENT Project makes use of the oil and gas industry’s ROVs to explore previously inaccessible seabed locations

material for three research papers on marine life in the region.” One of the early, exciting discoveries was a snapshot of a monkfish feeding on a cod (see image overleaf ). “Scientists knew how monkfish operated – sitting on the seabed and attracting food – but no-one had actually seen it happen in the deep ocean before,” says Daniel. The results set in motion a process that led to SERPENT being formed – a collaboration between operator BP, drilling company Transocean, offshore services contractor Subsea 7 and NOC. The initiative taps into the industry’s ROV filming and data collection capabilities and quickly expanded to embrace other offshore operators and contractors. It’s now a global programme, featuring research work on the UK Continental Shelf, as well as in Canada, West Africa, Australia, Venezuela and many more. “It’s an exciting and ground-breaking concept,” enthuses Subsea 7’s group environmental manager Lala Gandilova. As a founding partner of the SERPENT project, the company has provided access to its ROV technology for hundreds of hours of operations. “SERPENT is an exceptionally powerful tool to promote awareness of deep sea life. Using cutting-edge ROV technology to support the worldwide science community is incredibly

It’s a view echoed by Dr Ian Hudson, who is currently HR director for Europe, Africa and Asia at offshore drilling company Transocean, one of the founding partners of SERPENT. Ian got involved while working for NOC on his PhD project. “I was given the opportunity to use the equipment on a large ROV operating in BP’s Schiehallion field and came back with footage, photos and data. That single two-week trip produced enough

SERPENT PROJECT BY NUMBERS…

10 YEARS

THE LIFESPAN OF THE PROJECT SO FAR 2,500 MEDIA FILES

UNIQUE PHOTOS AND VIDEO CLIPS GATHERED IN UK WATERS AND OVERSEAS

15 MISSIONS

COMPLETED IN UK WATERS

1 YEAR THE EQUIVALENT TIME SPENT BY SERPENT SCIENTISTS ON OFFSHORE MISSIONS WORLDWIDE 30 RESEARCH PAPERS THE NUMBER OF PEER-REVIEWED SCIENTIFIC PAPERS GENERATED BY THE PROJECT

W I R E L I N E - I S S U E 2 6 W I N T E R 2 0 1 3 - 2 0 1 4

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