S E R P E N T

is an acronym:

Scientific and Environmental ROV Partnership using Existing Industrial Technology



Major Partners:

Statoil, Norway's largest oil and gas company

TOTAL E&P UK and Total Foundation for Biodiversity and the Sea

BP

Subsea 7, one of the world's largest ROV operators and subsea installation companies

Transocean, largest offshore drilling Company in the world

Chevron, one of the largest integrated energy companies

Marine Simulation LLC, produces interactive, computer-based simulations of surface and sub-surface craft for marine professionals. Using state of the art technologies orginally developed for the video game industry and over 2 decades of hands on industry experience, our simulations deliver a level of visual and functional realism never before possible. We are hoping that the partnership, which began in November 2008, will allow SERPENT to offer deep sea biology-based ROV training missions using a highly realistic simulation environment.

Fisheries Research Services, Fisheries Research Services (FRS), Marine Laboratories, Aberdeen is an agency of the Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department (SEERAD)

Hurricane Exploration PLC (HEX), is an oil and gas company headquartered in the UK with an innovative and creative approach to exploration.

Kongsberg Maritime, have been a supporter of the project since 2004. Following a meeting at the 2004 Oceanology, Kongsberg showcased their underwater camera products and some images taken during SERPENT missions. The images were a real hit, and the camera group decided to become project partners. The relationship explores using Kongsberg camera technology on SERPENT missions to provide valuable educational output and stunning visuals for the project. This partnership demonstrates the dynamic nature of SERPENT reflected in our range of partners and their businesses. We use Kongsberg cameras to obtain the majority of our deep-water images.

Gulf SERPENT, Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) SERPENT, is coordinated within the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences at Louisiana State University (LSU). This project began with funding from NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration. The project is currently funded by a three year grant from the Minerals Management Service, U.S. Department of the Interior with in-kind match provided by BP.

Newcastle University, is a major European University centre for Marine Technology, with substantial research and teaching laboratories.

Nexen Inc., The Buzzard development in the North Sea represents a major new find for the North Sea and SERPENT are working in partnership with Nexen.

Oceaneering International, have 205 work class ROVs in their fleet, and of these more than 100 are tasked to drill rig support.

Santos is a major Australian oil and gas exploration and production company growing a global energy business. Santos has interests and operations in every major Australian petroleum province, together with extensive global interests, including the Gulf of Mexico.

Saipem-America (formerly SonSub) is part of the Saipem Group and is a supplier of ROV technologies to the oil and gas industry. They work with SERPENT in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM SERPENT) in support of LSU's studies of life in the water column. GULF SERPENT has developed a close partnership with Saipem-America who are currently collecting regular data for us using five Innovator ROVs based at three different BP deepwater facilities: Thunder Horse, Mad Dog, and Developmental Driller II.

SEA SERPENT, The SEA (South-East Asia) SERPENT collaboration led by Dr Murray Thomson at the University of Sydney incorporates research groups from the University of Western Australia , University of Technology , Sydney , University of Wollongong and the University of Hawaii.

Woodside Energy Ltd. is one of Australia’s largest oil and gas companies.

Australian Museum, The Australian Museum has an international reputation in the fields of natural history and indigenous studies research, community programs and exhibitions.

BBC Natural History Unit, The BBC and its Natural History Unit based at Bristol are known throughout the world of media for making cutting edge and informative programmes about the environment and the natural world, including Wildlife on One, Blue Planet and Planet Earth.

National Marine Aquarium, SERPENT is pleased to have forged a strong relationship with the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth, the first aquarium in the United Kingdom to be set up solely for the purpose of education, conservation and research.

OceanLab, Aberdeen University have been close friends and colleagues of the DEEPSEAS group at NOCS for many years, and now under the SERPENT project provide an invaluable extension to the project based in Aberdeen. Oceanlab have a great deal of expertise in Lander and remote technology, through which we will explore collaborative research into the most complex of deep-sea science questions.

Offshore Energy Center, The Offshore Energy Center (OEC), Houston, is dedicated to expand the awareness of the vast energy resources beneath the world's oceans

Smithsonian Institution

Society for Underwater Technology, based in London is an international society that has many members in both science and industry

Texas A & M University, The deep-sea research group at Texas A&M have been involved in deep-sea work in the Gulf of Mexico since the early 1970’s! Through group leader, Professor Gil Rowe and his team at A & M, research has been made into the benthic biology of the most complex and interesting areas of this area of intense oil and gas exploration. Texas A & M also host a BP Biodiversity Fellow, and it is through this connection that the group became our first overseas academic partners.

U. S. Geological Survey, The U.S. Geological Survey fish expert Kenneth Sulak is a lead scientist in their Coastal Ecology and Conservation Research Group.

[link to www.serpentproject.com]



There will be some folks associated with the named organizations who know what is going on in the GOM.