Imodco, Inc.

Jafar Korloo

An offshore hydrocarbon production system includes a spar (,) that floats at the sea surface, a subsea buoy (,) lying under the spar and hanging from it, and one or more risers (,) that extend up to the subsea buoy and are coupled therethrough to the spar. The subsea buoy is initially negatively buoyant to ballast of the spar and keep it upright, but the subsea buoy can be made positively buoyant so the spar can be moved away and a workover vessel (,) moved over the subsea buoy. The subsea buoy can be coupled to the spar by one or more chains (,A) extending between them, and one or more flexible hoses (,) extending between them.

Spar system

Apparatus is described for flaring large amounts of natural gas at a location spaced from an offshore production platform. The apparatus includes a spar buoy structure (32, FIG. 1) anchored at a location on the order of 0.1 kilometer from the platform (12) and coupled through an undersea conduit (44) to the platform. The structure is anchored by catenary chains (71-74), and has a ballasted lower portion and a buoyant upper portion to keep the structure upright so the flare (42) always remains high above sea level. The undersea conduit (44) which carries natural gas to the structure, connects to a buoy pipe (66) that extends along the structure, at a location (64) close to the center of gravity (80) of the structure, or at the bottom (keel) of the buoy, to minimize failure from constant structure pivoting. A wide lower part (34) of the structure includes several individually-sealed air-filled chambers (91-98, FIG. 2) spaced along its height. A mechanism (100, FIG. 4) coupled to one of the chambers varies the amount of gas and water therein to vary the buoyancy of the structure. A water pump (132, FIG. 5) in the spar structure can pump water to hose stations (161-164, FIG. 6) on the platform, to assure the availability of water for fighting a fire that might destroy pumps on the platform.

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Moorpark, CA, United States of America

Jafar Korloo