GSF Jack Ryan Hosts First SERPENT Mission Offshore Nigeria

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The GSF Jack Ryan in April hosted the first SERPENT Project mission in Nigerian waters.

Transocean has been a founding partner in SERPENT since 2002, a project that makes cutting-edge industrial Remote Operated Vehicle technology and data more accessible to the world’s science community, sharing knowledge and advancing deep-sea research.

Client Total granted Dr. Daniel Jones from the SERPENT Project access to the ROV onboard the Jack Ryan for three days, as it was not required for well operations. During this time, Dr. Jones conducted a variety of observations and collected specimens of some of the species he encountered.

The specimens were brought back to the U.K. to be analyzed by marine experts and then distributed to various museums and institutes. It’s even possible that some of the specimens collected by Dr. Jones are new species, not yet described by science!

During his visit to Nigeria, Dr. Jones explained that our knowledge of the deep sea in this area is limited to the last real scientific research done in the deeper waters of West Africa … in 1890!

Through our involvement in the project and in collaboration with our clients, Transocean is helping to provide a unique asset to the world’s scientific community.

Nearly 30 Transocean rigs have contributed to the SERPENT project all around the world including offshore Australia, Angola, Norway, Canada, the U.S, India and Nigeria. With the successful mission in the Gulf of Guinea Division, each division within EAU has now hosted or assisted with a SERPENT mission.

The scientific community has access to only about 40 ROVs worldwide. The oil and gas industry operates more than 400 ROVs globally, many of them on deepwater rigs like the GSF Jack Ryan.

For information on the SERPENT Project and Transocean’s involvement, visit www.serpentproject.com or read the “Environment” section of www.deepwater.com.