SERPENT Activity Report: Lincoln 205/26b-14 and Warwick Crestal. 2019. UK.

In 2019 National Oceanography Centre scientists carried out a field campaign at Hurricane Energy’s Lincoln 205/26b-14 and Warwick Crestal 204/30b-A sites west of Shetland, through Hurricane’s involvement in the SERPENT Project. Previous SERPENT observations have revealed the impacts of sedimentation disturbance from the open hole phase of hydrocarbon drilling. This work showed some evidence for different faunal responses over time following the sedimentation event, including evidence for recovery of the abundance and diversity of organisms living within the impacted area. The interpretation of these changes is limited because data only exist over coarse time scales necessary when completing visits pre-drilling, post-drilling and return visits to the sites (e.g. months to years). The primary aim of the field visits to the Transocean Leader in 2019 were to understand the responses of seafloor organisms to sedimentation disturbance over finer temporal scales (e.g. minutes to hours) within the context of the existing knowledge of the effects of sedimentation at hydrocarbon drilling sites. This was addressed using seafloor video survey techniques and time-lapse photography of seafloor organisms during sedimentation events.