Title:Secrets of the Deep: the Stones Metocean Monitoring Project

Title: Secrets of the Deep: The Stones Metocean Monitoring Project Duration: 3:55 minutes

Description: An introduction to the Metocean Monitoring Project. In the Gulf of Mexico sits Shell’s Stones oil and gas field. An ocean weather station floats in the Stones, anchored by a three-kilometer mooring lined dotted with instruments that collect marine data and monitors weather and sea conditions in order to understand the Gulf of Mexico’s role in global climate and ocean circulation. Through partnerships, Shell has opened up parts of the line to universities and research institutions. Scientists and university researchers are now able to collect data at unprecedented depths using their own instruments and new technologies when the line is hauled in for maintenance.

Secrets of the Deep: The Stones Metocean Monitoring Project Transcript

[Background music plays] Rhythmic music featuring synthesised effects

[Video footage] Aerial view panning across the open water of the Gulf of Mexico. Text appearing centre-screen as displayed below.

[Text displays] In a remote part of the Gulf of Mexico, USA is the world’s deepest oil & gas development, known as “Stones”.

[Video footage] View of Shell scientists and university researchers on a research vessel using ropes and pulleys to lift up an ocean weather station. Side-angled view of the men lowering the weather station into the ocean as one man manages the ropes attached to the anchors. Text appears on-screen as displayed below.

[Text displays] Summer 2017: Shell scientists and university researchers seized the unique opportunity to collect data at unprecedented depths.

[Video footage] View of a Shell researcher standing on the deck of a research vessel. In the distance, the ocean weather station floats on the water surface. Closer shot of the weather station on the ocean surface. Text appears on-screen as displayed below.

[Text displays] Together they set oceanographic weather and ecosystem monitoring instruments on a buoy and mooring line anchored to the ocean floor.

[Animation] Map showing location of the Stones field south of New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico. The state of New Orleans is highlighted in yellow. Zoom in as text appears as displayed below.

[Text displays] 200 miles south of New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico

[Animation] Animation of the Stones monitoring station on the sea surface. To its right, the Turritella, an FPSO facility. Descending down from the monitoring station below the surface is the mooring line which is dotted with monitoring equipment and anchored to the seabed at 3,000 metres depth. To the left, the metres depth illustrated. Text appears on-screen as displayed below.

[Text displays] The Stones monitoring station anchored to the seabed by a mooring line

[Video footage] View of scientists walking on the deck of a research vessel. Several underwater gliders sit on the deck. View of Shell personnel hauling the anchors into place on the deck and connecting them to large chains. Shot taken from the vessel as a pulley lowers the anchors into the ocean with the buoys floating on the sea surface. Text appears on-screen as displayed below.

[Text displays] The mission: understand the Gulf of Mexico’s role in global climate and ocean circulation.

[Voice heard over radio] Three, two, one, go, go, go.

[Video footage] A Shell worker releases the cable holding the anchors as they are dropped into the ocean. Interview with Ruth Perry

[Text displays] Ruth Perry

Shell Marine Scientist and Regulatory Policy Specialist

[Title] Shell Marine Scientist and Regulatory Policy Specialist

Ruth Perry The Gulf of Mexico has always had this large role. It has a potential role in understanding climate.

[Video footage] Close-up of Ruth Perry speaking to off-screen interviewer set against an out-of-focus background. Interview with Steven DiMarco

[Text displays] Steven DiMarco

Texas A&M University Professor of Oceanography

[Title] Professor of Oceanography

Steven DiMarco More than 15 million people live around that rim of the Gulf of Mexico, so it’s important societally and economically and it’s important globally.

[Video footage] Close-up of Steven DiMarco speaking to off-screen interviewer set against an out-of-focus background of floor-to-ceiling screens showing weather patterns and other oceanographic data. Aerial view panning across coastal homes towards the beach. Back to close-up of Steven.

Ruth Perry Year to year we have hurricanes and tropical storms. The Gulf of Mexico is a large marine ecosystem and it’s a large environment.

[Video footage] View of a ship at sea being battered by high waves. Satellite image of a hurricane/tropical storm. Back to close-up of Ruth. View of open water with calm waves. Interview with Christopher Hayes

[Text displays] Christopher Hayes

University of Southern Mississippi

Assistant Professor of Marine Science

[Title] Assistant Professor of Marine Science

Christopher Hayes It’s a very dynamic ocean. The Loop Current comes through there so that’s this very strong current that becomes the Gulf Stream and that’s just happening at the surface.

[Video footage] Close-up of Christopher Hayes speaking to off-screen interviewer set against an out-of-focus background in a laboratory. View of open water. Zoom in on a computer screen showing a weather map and the current in the Gulf.

Ruth Perry How do we look at what’s going on down there, and how does that affect all of these natural and man- made phenomenon? And so that’s kind of where the Stones opportunity came from.

[Video footage] Zoomed-in view panning down a whiteboard with some out-of-focus text written across it. Back to close-up of Ruth. Zoomed-in shot of bubbles rising up from below the sea surface. Interview with Pak Leung

[Text displays] Pak Leung Shell Metocean Specialist

[Title] Shell Metocean Specialist

Pak Leung How can we utilise that data for wider community instead of just oil and gas, or just Shell?

[Video footage] Close-up of Pak Leung speaking to off-screen interviewer set against an out-of-focus background. View of Matthew Howard standing up and teaching to a class of students. Behind him, a table with data is projected onto a screen as he gesticulates. Close-up of several students in Matthew’s class. Interview with Matthew Howard

[Text displays] Matthew Howard

Texas A&M University

GCOOS Data Management Coordinator

[Title] GCOOS Data Management Coordinator

Matthew Howard They’re opening it up to researchers to put their own equipment on it.

[Video footage] Close-up of Matthew Howard speaking to off-screen interviewer set against an out-of-focus background. Aerial shot of two shipping vessels at sea side-by-side. The larger vessel to the left has a helipad.

Ruth Perry We can bring folks with us, our partners like the University of Southern Mississippi and Texas A&M, and people can do some oceanographic work while we’re doing the servicing of the mooring.

[Video footage] View of a man walking towards the entrance of a building. At the top of the building is written The University of Southern Mississippi Oceanographic Support Facility. View of a different building with many trees planted in front of it and a flagpole flying the American flag and a Texan flag. To the right of the shot in front of the building on a lawn sits a stone wall with lettering reading GERG, Geochemical & Environmental Research Group, College of Geosciences, Texas A&M University, 833 Graham Road, College Station. Shot of several scientists on the deck of a shipping vessel. Two scientists are holding long poles over the water. Close-up of a scientist holding and shaking a small flask. In front of him, a table with equipment on the deck of a research vessel.

Steven DiMarco I’m really excited that Shell would move forward with such a visionary idea.

[Video footage] Shot of Steven talking to several students at an exterior location as a dark silhouette passes in front of the shot. Back to close-up of Steven. Zoomed-in view panning upwards of graphs illustrating temperature and salinity in the East and West Mission. Matthew Howard The prospects of getting real-time data back from the deep Gulf, we’re pretty excited by that.

[Video footage] Back to close-up of Matthew.

Steven DiMarco So I teach a lot of the data methods classes in the department of oceanography. I work in the ocean and I bring that information right to the student, right inside the classrooms. They like to see the context, they like to see the data. It’s that proof that leads to better understanding.

[Video footage] Out-of-focus shot of Steven holding a water bottle walking through a doorway into a building. The shot then comes into focus as several students follow Steven into the building. Close-up of a Slocum Electric Glider. In the background, Steven and his students can be seen out-of-focus. Side-angled view of Steven explaining something to a group of students. Back to close-up of Steven. Back to the shot of Steven explaining to his students. Close-up of one of the female students. Wide-angled view of Steven and his students standing by two very large tank-like pieces of equipment.

Christopher Hayes So I’m interested in measuring how much CO2 is in the water near the mooring because we know CO2 is changing in the atmosphere, but how those changes translate to changes in the ocean could be really important for how things might change in the future.

[Video footage] View of Christopher at work in a laboratory. Close-up of Christopher’s gloved hands holding a large syringe which he then subsequently inserts into a piece of monitoring equipment. Various close-ups of measuring equipment. Back to close-up of Christopher.

Ruth Perry It’s also getting clued on autonomous technologies as well, things like underwater gliders.

[Video footage] Back to close-up of Ruth. Close-up of the small yellow fin of an underwater glider descending down into a pool of water. View of researchers lowering an underwater glider down some steps on the deck of a research vessel, while one researcher takes pictures. Interview with Kevin Martin

[Title] Senior Marine Instrumentation Specialist

Kevin Martin This is an autonomous vehicle. Go out on the research vessel, put this in the water fully unattended 365 days out of the year, either using the mooring as a centre line or endpoint, and then we can work on extracting out a 3D to 4D image of what’s going on out in the Gulf in that area.

[Video footage] View of Kevin Martin with an underwater glider on a table in front of him explaining to off-screen interviewer. Shot of researchers lowering a glider into the ocean. Shot taken from a camera onboard a glider as it drops into the water forming bubbles. Underwater shot of a glider. Close-up of Kevin speaking to off-screen interviewer. Close-up of a computer screen showing a 3D model, an out-of- focus person sat at the computer. Zoomed-in view of the 3D model spinning around. Close-up of a table containing weather map data.

Pak Leung We need to collect that data. We need to understand what is going on down there.

[Video footage] Out-of-focus face seen looking at a weather map. Close-up shot of a graph illustrating salinity levels. Back to close-up of Kevin.

[Text displays] Kevin Martin

University of Southern Mississippi

Senior Marine Instrumentation Specialist

Kevin Martin And that affects both industry, private lives, the fishing industry, oil industry. Everybody in the Gulf of Mexico is affected by what’s going on in the Gulf of Mexico as a whole, not just in the coastal environment but also in the deep Gulf.

[Video footage] View of researchers preparing some equipment on the deck of a research vessel. Close-up of said equipment being lowered into the ocean. Underwater shot of said equipment.

Pak Leung Whatever instrument we put on there, that will be a long-term time series measurement. We are talking about decades.

[Video footage] Back to close-up of Pak. View of an underwater glider just beneath the sea surface attached to a small buoy. In the lower right-hand corner of the shot, part of the research vessel and a researcher look on.

Kevin Martin Having a long-term mooring at 3,000 metres in any body of water is a scientist’s dream.

[Video footage] Underwater shot of a glider. Close-up of bubbles being formed underwater as the glider descends. Back to close-up of Kevin. Exterior shot of a floating monitoring station, anchors, large chains and other bits of equipment sat in a yard.

Ruth Perry And we can use that as a model to build potentially more of these systems, and so then we keep adding to that and we keep building our knowledge. It’s that public private partnership, you know, that we’re going to build for the next two decades and more, and then bringing that data to life, developing it into something that really connects people to the deep sea.

[Video footage] Close-up of small solar panel affixed to a piece of equipment. View of a researcher sat working on a floating monitoring station with several solar panels inside a building. Shot of Steven explaining to a group of students standing by a large water tank with a glider inside it. Close-up of a man working on a bit of electrical equipment. Back to close-up of Ruth. View of the open water, the side of a research vessel to the right of the shot, then disappearing from view as the shot pans left. Text appears on- screen as displayed below against an out-of-focus background of moving, glistening particles. [Text displays] The Metocean Monitoring Project is a long-term study expected to span decades. Shell is committed to the invaluable data collection for the lifetime of the Stones Project.

[Audio] Shell jingle

[Graphic] Shell Pecten centred on a white background