Ocean Traveler was a drilling platform built in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and used in the Gulf of Mexico

Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...

. In 1966, it was transferred to Esso

Esso

Esso is an international trade name for ExxonMobil and its related companies. Pronounced , it is derived from the initials of the pre-1911 Standard Oil, and as such became the focus of much litigation and regulatory restriction in the United States. In 1972, it was largely replaced in the U.S. by...

 for the first exploration wells on the Norwegian continental shelf in the North Sea

North Sea

In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

, following the Dutch discovery of Groningen gas field in 1959. On 16 July 1966, the platform did a limited discovery in the North Sea, in a block that much later became the discovery place of the Balder Field.

Ocean Traveler had big problems with the weather conditions in the North Sea, the weather being much tougher in the North Sea than the areas off the southern coast of the United States. These experiences laid the foundation for the sister platforms, especially the Norwegian-built "Ocean Viking", which had a significantly strengthened structure.