The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 15, 2001
Filed:
Dec. 10, 1997
Jens Korsgaard, Princeton Junction, NJ (US);
Other;
Abstract
A method and apparatus for off-shore production of oil. Special shuttle tankers with high-pressure cargo tanks capable of containing the produced live crude oil at a pressure close to that of the ambient pressure inside a subterranean oil field, and without any processing of the live crude oil prior to transportation are used. The produced live crude oil from the subterranean oil field is pumped directly into the high-pressure cargo tanks aboard the shuttle tanker. Lighter fractions of the live crude oil stored in the shuttle tanker may be used as a fuel to power the propulsion machinery and the auxiliary machinery aboard the shuttle tanker. The pressures in the tanks are ordinarily above 70 kPa gauge pressure, may be higher than 1.8 MPa gauge, and may range as high as 35 MPa gauge or even higher. The tanker vessel transports the produced live crude oil to an onshore processing plant for separation into gas, water, solids, and stabilized crude oil.