The Ocean Drilling Program II: JOIDES Resolution - Scientific drillship of the 80's

The Ocean Drilling Program, which began operations in January, 1985, required a drilling vessel with increased operational capabilities to achieve its ambitiously redefined objectives in sub-seafloor research. The vessel selected would be called upon to continue and exceed the remarkable accomplishments of Glomar Challanger and the Deep Sea Drilling Project. During 1984, the Sedco/BP 471 drillship was selected for that mission and was converted to a scientific drilling/coring vessel. In addition to a more than twofold increase in scientific laboratory and berthing accommodations in comparison to the Challanger, the following operational upgrades have been incorporated: 1. Increased drill string capability to 30,000 feet (9144 meters) by means of a tapered drill string with additional racking capacity. 2. Increased available power for dynamic positioning, pipehandling and increased transit speed. 3. Riser handling capability. 4. State-of-the-art drilling systems, including in-line heave compensator, electric top drive, "Iron Roughneck" and dual-drum coring winch. 5. New downhole systems, including high resolution sonar and television capabilities for reentry, and the use of downhole motors for coring and bare-rock spudding. The Sedco vessel, unofficially rechristened "JOIDES Resolution", has now completed several months of ODP operations with only minimal "teething problems". In nearly all respects the desired capabilities have been achieved or exceeded. This paper describes the improvements and discusses planned additional upgrading of capabilities.