Vetco, Inc.

Vetco Offshore Industries, Inc.

Bernard H Van Bilderbeek

John E Maingot

James M Walker

A manifold unit is connected to a running tool and pipe and run into position in a receptacle on a subsea template or platform to establish a flow path between fluid passages in the receptacle. Fluid supplied through the running pipe forces locking elements into locking engagement with the receptacle and the unit is forced into seating engagement in the receptacle to make a seal between the unit and the flow passages. The unit is retrievable by engaging another pipe in the unit and supplying pressure to release the locking elements.

Vertically retrievable subsea conduit connector

An underwater template has one or a plurality of pile housings through which piles are driven into the earth at the floor of the water to fix the template in place by forging the pile into grooves in the housing. The forging operations are performed by a rotary cold forge tool with expansible rollers, the tool being rotatable by a running string of drill pipe guided by a swivel which lands on and is centered by the pile, or the forging is done by explosives confined between seals within the pile section.

Pile forging

A subsea template is installed on a level base provided by lowering and landing on the floor of the sea a container to which is supplied a quantity of fluent, settable material which flows to form a level upper surface on which the template is landed. The template is fixed in place by setting a pile into the floor of the sea. The receptacle is a guide base anchoring guidelines on which the template is lowered after hardening of the fluent material, or, in the case of a guidelineless installation, the base and template are lowered together and the template raised above the base during setting of the fluent material and then lowered onto the level base.

Level subsea template installation

A through the flowline or 'TFL' tool selector has a base provided with a number of spaced flowline ports and a diverter tube shiftably mounted in a housing for selective communication with the flowline ports. The diverter tube is actuated by a reciprocable and rotatable piston and cam drive which shifts the diverter tube progressively from one flowline port to another. The piston is shiftable in a cylinder to which pressure fluid is supplied and then exhausted to effect actuation of the cam drive.

Through the flowline selector

A connector apparatus particularly useful in pile driving in water to enable a pile string to be released or disconnected in the vicinity of the mudline after the pile has been driven to its final depth, the connector including an upper box secured to one portion of a pin apparatus attached by a releasable mechanism to another lower portion of the pin apparatus, release of the mechanism by a suitable tool operated from a remote location enabling the drive pile string above the lower portion of the pin to be withdrawn through the water to the surface.

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Ventura, CA, United States of America

Bernard H Van Bilderbeek