Conoco Inc.

Enersea Transport LLC

Frontier Deepwater Appraisal Solutions LLC

Ezng Solutions, LLC

Charles N White

William M Bishop

Riley G Goldsmith

David J Pemberton

Roy B Shilling, Iii

Howard Day

Andrew F Hunter

John Mercier

Colin P Leach

Scott Campbell McClure

Fikry R Botros

Howard Wf Day

Roy B Shilling Iii

Howard WF Day

Composite tank apparatus and methods of making and using same. An array of flat-sided co-dependent cells with relatively thin skins made of metallic or non-metallic materials. Each cell has at least two flat wall panel portions connected by radiused sections arranged such that all of the flat wall panel portions are either in flush contact with each other or in flush contact with flat supporting panels of an enclosing structure or thermal insulating material lining an interior thereof. The cells are sealed with each other around a perimeter of at least one pair of matching lightening through-wall holes provided in adjacent pairs of the wall panel portions of the cells to resist relative movement and prevent leakage of fluid therefrom. The composite tank apparatus may include an enclosing structure, and optionally, one or more layers of thermally insulating material lining the interior surface or the exterior surface of the enclosing structure.

Apparatus, systems, and methods for storing and transporting compressed fluids

A mobile offshore drilling unit is converted to provide drilling, completion and workover access to multiple dry tree wells from a drilling derrick to allow production and export of oil and gas from high pressure, high temperature reservoirs in deep offshore waters. Existing practice has been for the drilling derrick on a production platform supporting dry tree wells to be moved over a fixed well slot. The present invention provides a movable wellbay that supports multiple top-tensioned subsea well tieback risers, which may be positioned directly below the derrick's rotary table and/or beneath another operating device. The use of top-tensioned subsea well tieback risers supported by the movable wellbay allows the converted facility to drill, complete, maintain, improve and produce from subsea wells through dry trees.

Movable wellbay assembly

Floating oil and gas facility with a movable wellbay assembly

A container has a pair of opposing heads, and a wall section between the heads has a square cross-section and planar side walls joined together by rounded corners. The side walls tend to deflect outwardly while under pressure, but are supported externally by a support system such as the walls of a cargo hold. Another container comprises an outside tank and a flexible membrane tank inside the outside tank, an annular space being defined in between, where a first fluid is charged into the membrane tank and a second fluid is charged into the annular space in order to discharge the first fluid. In another embodiment, a long tube having a square cross-section is coiled in a support structure and made gas-tight for holding a compressed fluid, and adjacent coils and the support structure limit expansion of the tube.

Storing, transporting and handling compressed fluids

Methods for loading a compressed fluid into and discharging the compressed fluid out of containment are provided. Compressed fluid is injected into a bottom portion of a container system for storage and/or transport until a target pressure is reached after which gas is withdrawn from an upper portion of the container system at a rate to maintain the target pressure while the compressed fluid is injected in the bottom portion. The compressed fluid is cooled through an expansion valve and by refrigerated chillers or by injecting a cold liquid of the same chemical composition as the compressed fluid into the compressed fluid prior to injection into the container system. Discharge from the container system to a receiving facility begins with blow down from the bottom portion of the container system without a displacement fluid and continues until pressure falls below an acceptable differential pressure.

Apparatus and method for flowing compressed fluids into and out of containment

Methods for loading a compressed fluid, such as natural gas, into and discharging the compressed fluid out of containment are provided. The compressed fluid is injected into a bottom portion of a container system for storage and/or transport until a target pressure is reached after which gas is withdrawn from an upper portion of the container system at a rate to maintain the target pressure while the compressed fluid is injected in the bottom portion. The compressed fluid is cooled through an expansion valve and by refrigerated chillers or by injecting a cold liquid of the same chemical composition as the compressed fluid, such as liquid natural gas, into the compressed fluid prior to injection into the container system. Withdrawal or discharge from the container system to a receiving facility begins with blow down from the bottom portion of the container system without a displacement fluid and continues until pressure falls below an acceptable differential pressure. The discharge stream is passed through a separator and a light gas from the separator is pressurized and injected into an upper portion of the container system to drive the compressed fluid out the bottom. The light gas is pressurized using either a compressor or a heated tank system, where two vessels operate in parallel, trapping and heating the light gas and then discharging to the container system from one while filling the other and alternating the operation between the two.

The methods and apparatus for transporting compressed gas includes a gas storage system having a plurality of pipes connected by a manifold whereby the gas storage system is designed to operate in the range of the optimum compressibility factor for a given composition of gas. The pipe for the gas storage system is preferably large diameter pipe made of a high strength material whereby a low temperature is selected which can be withstood by the material of the pipe. Knowing the compressibility factor of the gas, the temperature, and the diameter of the pipe, the wall thickness of the pipe is calculated for the pressure range of the gas at the selected temperature. The gas storage system may either be modular or be part of the structure of a vehicle for transporting the gas. The gas storage system further includes enclosing the pipes in an enclosure having a nitrogen atmosphere. A displacement fluid may be used to offload the gas from the gas storage system. A vehicle with the gas storage system designed for a particular composition gas produced at a given location is used to transport gas from that producing location to a receiving station miles from the producing location.

Methods and apparatus for compressed gas

Modular system for storing gas cylinders

The methods and apparatus for transporting compressed gas includes a gas storage system having a plurality of pipes connected by a manifold whereby the gas storage system is designed to operate in the range of the optimum compressibility factor for a given composition of gas. The pipe for the gas storage system is preferably large diameter pipe made of a high strength material whereby a low temperature is selected which can be withstood by the material of the pipe. Knowing the compressibility factor of the gas, the temperature, and the diameter of the pipe, the wall thickness of the pipe may be calculated for the pressure range of the gas at the selected temperature. The gas storage system may either be modular or be part of the structure of a vessel for transporting the gas to the storage system. Since the pipe provides a bulkhead around the gas, the gas storage system may be used in a single hull vessel. The gas storage system further includes enclosing the pipes in a nitrogen atmosphere. A displacement fluid may be used to offload the gas from the gas storage system. A vessel with the gas storage system designed for a particular composition gas produced at a given location is used to transport gas from that producing location to offloading ports hundreds, or thousands, of miles from the producing location.

A floating production and storage facility (FPS) or 'floating atoll' comprises a very large tension leg platform (TLP) having a regular or irregular polygonal horizontal cross-section (including a circle) and having a centralized opening (moonpool) therethrough. The floater has wave transparent attributes, stanchions sited interior of the moonpool adapted to receive risers and maintain the risers within a limited horizontal zone with reference to the vessel while allowing vertical freedom of motion with reference to the vessel. It also has risers sited in the stanchions and connected to the bottom of the body of water upon which the TLP floats. The risers have sufficient buoyancy means below but near the surface of the water to tension the risers into vertical position, and can have additional buoyancy means distributed over much of their length. The floater can have large oil storage means, and can be moored by lateral mooring as well as the TLP tendons.

Floating production and storage facility

A Heave-Restrained Platform and Drilling System (HRP/DS) comprises a floating structure having a central buoyance means, at least three out-rigger columns, and a hybrid mooring system in which a spread (lateral) mooring system functions with an array of tensioned production risers (serving as a vertical tension leg) to keep the structure generally over a specified seabed location. The central buoyancy means has supports for upper terminations of a plurality of well production risers. Each riser is comprised of plural concentric tubular structural and pressure containment elements connecting a hydrocarbon well on the sea floor with a pressure containment means located on the floating structure. The risers are connected to the wells on the floor of the body of water upon which the floating structure floats at a locus generally directly below the floating structure, and are connected on the upper end to the floating structure, preferably below the surface of the water and below the center of effective mass of the floating structure, to the central buoyancy means under sufficient tension to function also as tendons to restrain heave of the flaoting structure. An array of at least three lateral mooring lines is attached to the peripheral columns of the floating structure and to the floor of the body of water laterally outwardly of the risers and under sufficient tension to maintain the floating structure generally on horizontal location.

Method for installing riser/tendon for heave-restrained platform

A Heave-Restrained Platform and Drilling System (HRP/DS) comprises a floating structure having a central buoyancy means, at least three out-rigger columns, and a hybrid mooring system in which a spread (lateral) mooring system functions with an array of tensioned production risers (serving as a vertical tension leg) to keep the structure generally over a specified seabed location. The HRP/DS provides a means for drilling and producing through oil wells in deep water such that critical pressure containment means are achieved with safe, redundant barriers and systems similar to those employed on shallow water fixed platforms.

Heave-restrained platform and drilling system

A tension leg platform which can be a heave restrained platform and drilling system (HRP/DS) is taken to the heave restrained mode by rapidly sluicing ballast by gravitational force from a reservoir above the water line. More specifically, a tension leg platform (which has a floating structure floating on a body of water, tethers connected to the floor of the body of water at a locus beneath the floating structure, porches attached to the floating structure having tether receptacles for receiving upper terminations of the tethers, a large reservoir above the water line of the body of water to hold a large amount of liquid ballast above the water line of the body of water and a sluice for rapidly dumping the liquid ballast from the floating structure) is taken to the heave restrained mode by: ballasting down the floating structure with liquid ballast in the reservoir, positioning the floating structure above the locus of attachment of the tethers to the floor of the body of water, positioning the upper terminations of the tethers in the tether receptacles of the porches, and rapidly dumping and sluicing the liquid ballast from the floating structure such that tension is applied to the tethers in a rapid and continuously increasing manner.

Sluice method to take TLP to heave-restrained mode

A single leg tension leg platform is a semi-submersible structure moored at a deep water site by hybrid mooring consisting of a single tension leg or cluster of tendons attached to a central column and, optionally, a conventional spread mooring system. The central column is surrounded by peripheral stability buoyant columns symmetrically arranged and typically in number from about 3 to 8. All the vertical tendons are located in a tight cluster at the center of the platform. This means that the tendons no longer effectively restrain pitch/roll or yaw motion. The role of the tendon cluster is essentially the direct, stiff elastic restraint of heave and compliant restraint of horizontal offset. Pitch/roll response is controlled primarily by careful distribution of peripheral buoyancy and detuning.

Growing community of inventors

Houston, TX, United States of America

Charles N White