Abb Vetco Gray Incorporated

Seahorse Equipment Corporation

Mark DeWitt Slider

Gary L Galle

Larry Dwayne Breaux

A driven pile anchor suitable for securing a tendon of a tension leg platform to the seafloor is supplemented with added weight. A load frame is added to the individual pile to accommodate ballast weights. Pre-manufactured ballast weights are placed on the frame to increase the holding power of the pile anchor system. In a second embodiment, the pile is intentionally plugged and installed with the plug intact. Pre-manufactured ballast weights are then placed inside the pile and may be held in place by gravity. In a third embodiment, the pile is a conventional driven friction pile installed with an underwater pile hammer. The pile is initially open but subsequently evacuated and intentionally plugged near its pile tip. Pre-manufactured ballast weights are placed inside the pile to increase its holding capacity. The first embodiment may be retrofitted to existing, driven-pile anchor systems.

Ballasted driven pile

A subsea choke assembly for a well has a resilient closure seal within it which is used for retrieval purposes as well. The closure member is a metal resilient ring having tapered seal surfaces. The tapered seal surfaces locate between the choke body housing and the choke body bonnet. When securing the bonnet to the housing, the resiliency of the closure seal must be overcome, as well as the force required to insert an inner seal into its sealing surface within the bore. When the bonnet is released, the closure seal has sufficient spring force to push itself upward from the housing. In addition, it pushes the bonnet upward from closure seal. The choke body moves upward in unison with the bonnet, freeing the inner seal from its sealing surface.

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Houston, TX, United States of America

Mark DeWitt Slider