Single Buoy Moorings Inc.

Jean Braud

Christian Raymond Bauduin

Jean Pierre Benoit

Paul A Brown

Geoffery O'nion

Cecile Melis

Jean-Pierre Benoit

Stein Vedeld

Benoit Borde

Andrew Newport

Christian Bauduin

Christian Baudin

A connector for a hydrocarbon system includes a first duct section, a first connector part slidably attached to the first duct section for connecting to a complementary connector part attached to a second duct section and a retraction member for moving the first connector part in an axial direction between an extended position and a retracted position.

Retractable hydrocarbon connector

A mooring leg connector for use with a mooring leg extending up from the sea floor to connect a floating structure to be moored to the seabed wherein disconnection and connection of the mooring leg is done by pulling in and out a connector elongated body extending in the mooring leg direction. The connector has a latch mechanism for fixation of the mooring leg to the floating structure to be moored and preventing movement in the direction of the seabed, and a flexible part with a double articulation axis located at the bottom of the connector body above the attachment member, the connector body being received in a housing which is fixed to a part of the structure to be moored, wherein the latch mechanism includes guiding elements and followers or orientation pins between the body of the connector and the housing.

Disconnectable chain connector

A vessel includes a hull, a shaft extending from an upper part of the hull to a bottom of the hull, a turret being rotatably supported in the shaft via a turret bearing, a manifold support structure carrying one or more conduits being rotatably supported on the turret via a manifold bearing. The turret includes a cavity for receiving a mooring buoy carrying one or more risers and one or more vertically displaceable actuation members near the manifold bearing for vertically displacing the manifold support structure relative to the turret between a rotational position in which the manifold support structure can rotate relative to the turret via the manifold bearing and a locked position in which the bearing support structure is rotationally locked relative to the turret.

Disconnectable turret mooring system with a rotatable turn table

A system is described for use at offshore locations of large depth, for mooring a production vessel or floating unit () at a location over a hydrocarbon reservoir () and for connecting risers () that can be carrying hydrocarbons up from the sea floor to a production vessel that stores the hydrocarbons, flowlines for water injection, gas lift, gas export, umbilicals and mooring lines that moor the vessel. Both the mooring lines and the risers are disconnectably connected to the vessel though a connection buoy, or connector (). The invention concerns a system that allows a connector () to be used that is of minimum mass and volume, to ease its handling especially during its connection and disconnection to and from a vessel.

Disconnectable riser-mooring system

A mooring system includes a vessel with a lower-side cavity, a turret extending from deck level to the cavity, and a coupling mechanism releasably attaching a mooring buoy to the cavity, at least one buoy-supported riser. The riser end has a coupling member, the riser being slidable via a buoy opening, a riser connector member being attached to a movable transport member upwardly displaceable by a drive element, for: when the buoy and vessel are coupled, attaching the riser connector member to the transport member transporting the transport member upward while sliding the riser through the buoy and attaching the coupling member to a vessel transfer duct, and for lowering the riser while sliding the riser through the buoy until the connector member is supported by the buoy, prior to coupling member release, and release of the riser connector member from the transport member, followed by buoy lowering.

Disconnectable buoyant turrent mooring system

An offshore construction includes a floating body ( ), at least one anchor line ( ) for connecting the floating body to the sea bed, the anchor line being connected to the floating body via a flexible top part ( ) which is attached to a connector ( ) on the floating body. The connector includes a housing ( ) having two mutually perpendicular pivot axes ( ) with an elongate tubular member ( ) extending in the anchor line direction and a latch mechanism ( ) for fixation of the anchor line to the floating body and preventing movement in the direction of the sea bed. The connector includes a rod ( ), which can be accommodated within the tubular member. The rod is connected to the flexible top part. The rod includes a broad head part ( ) for engaging with the latch mechanism ( ) and a lower part ( ) for engaging with the sidewall of the tubular member and having an attachment member ( ) for attaching to the flexible top part ( ), the rod being longer than the tubular member such that the attachment member is situated outside of the tubular member.

Anchor line connector

A vessel (,) includes a relatively small sized turret (,) located near keel level. The upper part (,) of the turret wall is located below a level halfway between deck level (,) and keel level (,). Via a relatively small diameter product shaft (,), the product pipe (,) which connects to a riser (,) extends up to deck level (,). The lower part (,) of the turret wall extends along the height of the chain table (,), which is connected thereto via an axial and a radial bearing (,). In this way the chain table (,) can adequately take up the bending moments exerted by the mooring chains (,) or cables. After use of the vessel (,) as a floating production storage and offloading vessel, the lower part (,) of the turret wall can be easily removed and the vessel (,) can be converted back to a transport tanker. Preferably the lower part (,) of the turret wall is releasably connected to the upper part (,) by means of releasable bolts (,) through the upper slide bearings (,) of the chain table (,).

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La Turbie, France

Jean Braud