Conoco Inc.

The Offshore Company

James D Bozeman

Andrew F Hunter

Gerhard Helmut Reusswig

Glenn M Wald

Don Reagan Ray

Apparatus for mooring attachment of a floating tension leg platform to a subsea anchorage. The apparatus includes a tendon with an enlarged connector on one end, the connector being formed by a frustoconical bearing surface extending away from the end to which it is connected. A connector shroud partially surrounds the frustoconical surface and is connected to it by an elastomeric bearing. An inwardly sloping surface engages a supplementarily sloped surface formed on the attachment receptacle load ring to increase hoop strength. A side-entry bottom receptacle is also disclosed.

Mooring apparatus and method of installation for deep water tension leg

A method for securely mooring a floating tension leg platform and an anchoring base template. The method involves swinging an end of a neutrally buoyant, one piece tendon which has an enlarged connector downwardly into position adjacent an anchoring receptacle, pulling the enlarged connector through a side-entry opening in the receptacle, lifting the tendon to seat the enlarged connector in a load ring of the receptacle, adjusting the effective length of the tendon to place it in tension and repeating these steps for each of the mooring tendons. A one-piece, thin-walled, neutrally buoyant tendon is also disclosed.

An arctic drilling barge to perform offshore activities in the shallow water, fast ice regions of the arctic seas. Optimal ice interaction is obtained by shaping the hull of the barge in the form of an upright frustum. Ice which does adhere to the barge is detached and melted by circulating fluid through a plurality of interior hull compartments next to the hull sidewalls of the barge.

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Houston, TX, United States of America

James D Bozeman