Atwood Oceanics, Inc.

John J Macan

James M Magill

An implantable sea-floor shoring cellar is provided for housing drilling equipment such as a blowout preventer stack at least partly below the sea floor in order to allow oil well drilling by drill ships in shallow water areas where the distance between the sea floor and the drill ship is not sufficient to allow for normal positioning of the blowout preventer stack above the sea floor. The implantable sea-floor shoring cellar includes a substantially cylindrical retainer wall assembly with an annular air ejector assembly including ejector nozzles mounted within the retainer wall assembly adjacent to a lower opening; and a plurality of discharge tubes are mounted over the ejector nozzles for removing earth loosened from the sea floor during cutting of an opening below the retainer wall assembly so that the retainer wall assembly may be lowered without interference into place at least partly below the sea floor.

Growing community of inventors

Fulshear, TX, United States of America

John J Macan