Shell’s Perdido Spar, the world’s deepest drilling and production platform, floating in more than 8,000 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico’s Alaminos Canyon area – and an important component of how Shell and its partners once solved production infrastructure problem there. It’s also symbolic of the importance the deepwater Gulf continues to play in today’s energy picture. Story on page 10 of the October 2013 EXPLORER. Photo courtesy of Shell Oil.