GoM: Current sends operators loopy

Strong currents in the Gulf of Mexico are a hazard for operators and can result in nasty increases to project costs. With exploration moving increasingly into deep-water areas that seem more prone to eddies, oil firms are eager to find ways of predicting where they will move and when. Anne Feltus writes

THE TRANSOCEAN drillship, Deepwater Millennium, finished drilling a well on Anadarko's Atlas natural gas prospect, in waters 8,958 feet deep, in the eastern Gulf of Mexico (GoM), on 16 June 2003. The operators were debating whether to drill a sidetrack on the well to gather more geological data when they learned that an eddy current was heading in the direction of the drill site. About 150 miles in diameter and spinning clockwise at speeds of up to 4 knots, this powerful whirlpool could have damaged the risers extending from the drillship to the ocean floor. Rather than take that risk, they opted to delay drilling. Anadarko was not the only offshore operator affected by the huge Sargassum Ed