For nine months the ship Transocean Discoverer Spirit used 360-degree rotating propellers to hold itself steady in the 3, 500-foot-deep water as diamond-tipped bits cut the deepest oil well ever--6.5 miles down.
However, both economically as well as for the large scientific and public community, the processes and products of deep-water circulation remain poorly known.
With each passing quarter and with each additional well drilled in the Ultra Deep zones of the Gulf, sometimes in as little as 10 feet of water, McMoRan extends its pioneering position in this play.