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January 2012 www.sname.org/sname/mt þÿ TThe dominant driver of the Gulf Coast maritime economy is the oshore oil and gas industry, and many innovative technologies have been vital to that industry?s growth and prosper- ity. Today, the Gulf of Mexico region is a world leader in oil and gas production and is a proving ground for the industry?s continual expansion of exploration and extraction technologies into deeper waters and ever more hostile environments. But 50 years ago, these technological innovations were just beginning as the industry gradually moved oshore and started discov- ering the signicant resources that made it pay. While the oil industry was adapting land drill- ing technology for oshore, a group of scientists in the National Academies launched a bold new initia- tive in earth sciences?an initiative that fostered the birth of deep-ocean drilling. In 1960, its technical sta designed a unique at-sea experiment to prove feasible the concept of drilling in deep water. e rst steps of collecting samples beneath the sea bottom and testing the technology to make it possible took place in early 1961. e endeavor was called Project Mohole because the goal was to drill through the earth?s crust in deep water to the mantle (a geologic boundary known as the Moho). This first experimental drilling phase took place in 12,000 feet of water at a Pacic Ocean site approximately 200 miles south of San Diego, and I was part of a small engineering team charged with making it happen. þÿ DDynamic positioning Bill Bascom was the technical director of the Mohole experimental drilling project. He invented the concept and coined the term dynamic positioning (DP). He led þÿ TThe people and the technologies that birthed an industry BY PEþÿ tTEþÿ rR A. JOþÿ hHNþÿ sSONThe dynamically positioned CUSS I drilling at sea in 12,000 feet of water, April 1961. (historical note )Deep Sea Drilling and Dynamic Positioning 54_C3_BDept_SNAME_Jan12_P4.indd 6312/22/11 3:45 PM