Invention Grant
- Patent Title: Towable subsea oil and gas production systems
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Application No.: US15323053Application Date: 2015-07-02
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Publication No.: US10174865B2Publication Date: 2019-01-08
- Inventor: Martin Alexander Goodlad , Keith Scott Garden , Robert Dicken
- Applicant: Subsea 7 Limited
- Applicant Address: GB Sutton
- Assignee: Subsea 7 Limited
- Current Assignee: Subsea 7 Limited
- Current Assignee Address: GB Sutton
- Agency: Levy & Grandinetti
- Priority: GB1412005.9 20140704
- International Application: PCT/GB2015/051941 WO 20150702
- International Announcement: WO2016/001680 WO 20160107
- Main IPC: F16L1/16
- IPC: F16L1/16 ; F16L1/24 ; F16L9/19

Abstract:
A towable pipeline bundle for installation underwater at a subsea oil or gas production site has two or more bundled elongate elements, at least one of which is a flowline for carrying production fluid along the bundle. A rigid buoyancy pipe of polymer-composite material extends along and supports the bundled elongate elements. The buoyancy pipe has an internal buoyancy chamber and at least one port for introducing fluid into the buoyancy chamber. The buoyancy pipe is arranged to have positive buoyancy in seawater when its buoyancy chamber contains a fluid less dense than seawater. In this way, the buoyancy pipe confers substantially neutral buoyancy on a towable unit comprising the bundle. The unit can then be towed in mid-water to the production site and lowered there onto the seabed.
Public/Granted literature
- US20170146152A1 Towable Subsea Oil and Gas Production Systems Public/Granted day:2017-05-25
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