Abstract: A boom is described for use on a single point mooring system to connect a tower thereof to tankers or other vessels, wherein the boom is constructed to enable rapid attachment to a vessel and to protect boom components when not connected to a vessel. The boom has an inner end pivotally connected about a horizontal axis to a transfer structure, and has an outer end forming a compressible structure which can withstand compression and tension loads during coupling to a vessel. The boom end can be pulled up along the bow of a vessel until a secure connection can be made to the vessel, at a level at which a pipe connection at the end of the boom can connect to a pipe connector on the vessel. A buoyancy tank connected by a strut to an outer end portion of the boom holds the outer end of the boom at a considerable height above the water. Tanks lie on either side of the pivot axis of the boom, and a pump can be utilized to transfer water from one tank to the other to raise or lower the boom.

Abstract: An offshore terminal of the type which includes a dedicated vessel which rigidly supports a transfer structure beyond one end of the vessel, and with the transfer structure held by catenary chains to the sea floor. The transfer structure lies very close to an end of the vessel, but is has an underwater lower end which lies at a level substantially no higher than the adjacent end of the vessel, to avoid the possibility of the catenary chains hitting the vessel. The transfer structure extends from below water to above water, and the hose structure extending up from the sea floor extends through the transfer structure to protect it from surface waves. A product distribution unit (PDU) lies at the top of the transfer structure and has a turning portion connected to the vessel, the PDU being connected to the vessel independently of a massive mooring structure that connects a rotatable portion of the transfer structure to the vessel to transfer large loads.

Abstract: An offshore terminal is described, of the type which includes a dedicated vessel that supports a transfer structure loosely anchored as by several chains, and a fluid conduit structure that extends from the sea floor through the transfer structure to the vessel, wherein the vessel and transfer structure can be quickly disconnected to avoid potentially damaging surface conditions such as ice flows and hurricanes. The nonrotatable portion of the transfer structure, together with upper portions of the chains and underwater fluid conduit, can be detached from the rest of the transfer structure to sink below the surface, but to a predetermined depth which is considerably above the sea floor, so the vessel and a portion of the transfer structure can be sailed away from the region.

Abstract: A single point spar buoy mooring apparatus adapted to freely float in vertical position and readily attachable to a vessel, said apparatus including an outer rotatable cylinder and a superstructure supported therefrom, an inner nonrotatable cylinder coaxially within the outer cylinder and connected by mooring lines to anchors on the sea floor, a riser system including multiple riser lines extending from subsea wells through the inner cylinder to the top thereof, fluid transfer lines extending from the superstructure to the vessel, each riser line being connected to an associated transfer line and a turntable rotatable on the superstructure and connected with each riser line, said turntable being locked and held against rotation relative to said superstructure whereby turning of the vessel about the axis of the apparatus imparts a twist to said plurality of riser lines, said turntable being unlockable relative to the superstructure and rotatable to return the turntable to a reference position relative to the s

Abstract: A method and apparatus for maintaining fluid flow between a fixed subsea wellhead riser conduit and a weathervaning floating production, storage and off-loading (FPSO) vessel without swivel or sliding seals. The fixed riser conduit is divided into two flowpaths which terminate in connectors. First and second drums, coaxially mounted for rotation about a vertical axis, have connectors which are connectable with the flowpath connectors. The drum connectors are connected to one end of flexible pipes, at least partially wound around a respective drum, with the other end tensioned and connected fixably to the FPSO vessel. Enough flexible pipe is on each drum to permit the drum to rotate about a connection arc of greater than 180.degree. when its respective connector connects one flowpath with the FPSO vessel. The connectors and drums are disposed such that each connection arc overlaps the other arc at both ends of each arc.

Abstract: A relatively permanent anchoring arrangement for a decommissioned tanker which is connected to an undersea flexible transfer hose, uses a spreader beam suspended under the tanker by a plurality of mooring hawsers which are guided on the hull of the tanker. A support column structure having a vertical axis is suspended from and supported by the spreader beam. The support column structure comprises a diver's chamber which includes a massive peripheral bearing which enables relative rotary movement between the diver's chamber and the support column. The diver's chamber is anchored and fastened using a plurality of anchor chains. The diver's chamber can be evacuated and made dry for a diver to enter for purposes of bearing inspection maintenance. A fluid proof rotary joint housed in the diver's chamber is provided for connecting an undersea flexible transfer hose to a rigid transfer tube emerging from the tanker at the bottom thereof. Anchoring in high seas is effective by this arrangement.

Abstract: An offshore bulk fluid transfer system and method for its deployment in both shallow and deep water is disclosed. The system is adapted for transfer of fluids between a tanker and another location. Deep water embodiments of the invention provide for a three and four stair step method for deploying the base on the sea floor. Additionally, a method of retrieving the system from the sea floor is disclosed. The offshore bulk fluid transfer system comprises a base and buoyancy tanks attached to the base flotation for the system during its transportion to a mooring location. Buoyancy tanks are adapted for flooding to allow the system to be deployed on the sea floor.

Abstract: An anchoring system for a converted tanker, including a fluid transfer line extending from the sea bed to the tanker, uses a vertical hollow shaft which is integrated into the stern portion of the tanker. A buoy, which is generally annular, is located under the vertical hollow shaft and anchored. Attached to the buoy, vertically above the buoy, is a hollow columnar superstructure which is disposed coaxially with the hollow shaft and is unaffected by weather. The superstructure is supported and located in vertical and horizontal directions coaxially inside of the hollow shaft by top and bottom pivot bearings which may be lubricated by sea water. The anchoring per se of the tanker takes place through the hollow superstructure member and the anchored buoy. The shaft and superstructure can be evacuated dry without any sea water, for maintenance personnel to inspect or replace the bearings and for completing repairs to the transfer line which is disposed within the hollow superstructure.

Abstract: An apparatus for reducing environmental forces on a mooring system for tanker ships, wherein a fixed structure comprising a hinged arm rotatably movable with respect to the mooring system is provided with a rocker assembly which is pivotally connected to said arm and universally connected via lateral connecting ties to ballast chambers.

Abstract: The disclosure describes apparatus for mooring a vessel 10 in unprotected waters. The vessel 10 contains a recess 34 in its hull adapted for receiving a buoyant mooring element 18. The mooring element 18 is attached to the ocean floor 12 by a plurality of mooring lines 20. Means are provided for releasably securing the mooring element 18 within the recess 34. The buoyancy of the mooring element is established such that on release from the vessel 10 it sinks to a predetermined depth a spaced distance above the ocean floor. The apparatus of the present invention is especially well suited for mooring a hydrocarbon storage tanker proximate the terminus of a production riser in waters subject to ice floes.

Abstract: A mechanism for decoupling over a selected angle the rotational motion between a marine vessel moored to a single point mooring system such as a single anchor leg mooring (SALM) and the fluid swivel stack of the single point mooring system. The mechanism includes two spaced-apart stops attached to the fluid swivel stack and a coupler positioned between the stops and attached to a mooring swivel at the base of the fluid swivel stack. Shock absorbers may be positioned on each stop between the coupler and each stop.

Abstract: A mooring system in the form of a floating body having storage capacity e.g. a tanker has been provided at one end, such as the bow with a forwardly extending arm having an opening through which a buoy can be lifted and placed with outwardly extending lugs upon supporting recesses of the parts of the arm which define the opening there between by moving the raised buoy forwardly and lowering it with its lugs in the said recesses. This allows a fast connection and disconnection, so that in case the tanker is in danger due to ice or bad weather, the tanker can move away. After return of the normal situation the connection can be restored easily by lifting the buoy out of the water and placing it in its supports without the need of operating additional locking means. A plurality of vessels having the same arm can be connected one at the time with this buoy.

Abstract: A system which can be set up in emergencies to moor an offloading vessel and transfer oil between it and a seabed pipeline, as to remove oil from a grounded tanker or to deliver fuel to the shore under hostile or emergency conditions. The system includes a barge containing a fluid swivel as well as a mooring buoy and buoy-holding chain. The barge can be towed to a desired location and pipes and hoses connected to the fluid swivel, and the barge then can be sunk to the seabed. Upon sinking, the barge is already connected to the seabed pipeline and to hoses that extend from the barge to the sea surface to connect to an offloading vessel, as well as being connected through a chain to a buoy floating at the sea surface which has a hawser for mooring the vessel. A vessel can be utilized to tow out the seabed pipeline, to facilitate installation of the pipeline as to enable connection of the pipeline to the fluid swivel on the barge prior to sinking the barge.

Abstract: A system for mooring a ship-shape floating production system using a riser tensioned by a weight type motion compensation system. The riser is attached to the ship by a rocking beam that has a weight attached at one end of the beam to balance the vertical load component of the riser attached at the other end of the beam. A rocker arrangement is used whereby the beam support point moves to compensate for the inertial forces of the weight caused by the vertical accelerations of the tanker. Thus the high load fluctuations and hence poor riser fatigue life usually associated with weight type motion compensators is minimized. A gear arrangement is used to transmit horizontal loads. The overall arrangement provides a totally self-contained motion compensation and riser handling system that requires minimal ship modifications and is independent of significant self-induced wave loading.

Abstract: An improved system for operating a lifting cable over the side of a ship at ea in which a spar buoy having an adjustable lifting capacity is coupled to the ship by a rigid linkage which is free to pivot on an axis attached to the ship deck, and operates to decouple the motion of the ship from the lifting cable. The spar buoy is attached to a gimbal sheave assembly having a disengageable connector and tension line for drawing the connector into engagement with a mating socket at the outward end of a linkage boom. A narrow upper section of the spar buoy is provided with a plurality of vertical tubes and valves which by flooding or evacuating operate to vary the effective water plane area of the buoy for continual fine tuning and optimally adjusting of its natural heave mode characteristic frequency.

Abstract: An improved mooring system for mooring a floating vessel to an offshore structure is disclosed. The mooring system includes a first mooring arm connected to the vessel which is in sliding engagement with a second mooring arm connected to the structure. The first mooring arm is initially at a mean position relative to the second mooring arm in the absence of loading forces induced by wind, waves, ice, or an ocean current acting on the vessel. As a loading force urges the vessel away from the structure to displace the first mooring arm from the mean position, a hydraulic pressure cylinder is compressed to furnish a restoring force which counteracts the loading force. As the loading force subsides, the hydraulic pressure cylinder urges the first mooring arm toward the mean position. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, a stop is attached to the first mooring arm to limit the excursion of the first mooring arm from the mean position.

Abstract: A single point mooring apparatus for tanker loading and discharging is disclosed having a fixed mooring tower and a yoke connected to the fixed tower by a triaxial articulation element for allowing the yoke to move while connected to a vessel in yaw, pitch and roll with respect to the mooring base. The yoke is shaped to straddle the bow of the moored vessel and is suspended above the water line with weighted pendants on port and starboard sides of the vessel, providing a resilient position restoring force to the vessel. Fluid transfer swivels and flexible hose connections in the cargo transfer conduits are all located above the water line.

Abstract: The invention relates to a single point mooring system provided with pressure relief means. Single point mooring systems are used for offshore loading and unloading of oil tankers, wherein a tanker may be moored at its bow to a rotatable mooring element of the system, thus allowing the tanker to rotate about the system in response to forces caused by the tides, winds and currents.

Abstract: Mooring systems for floating vessels positioned off-shore. A rigid column extends from the sea floor and provides a single-point mooring for a barge or other floating structure which includes facilities for storing oil or liquified gases. The barge may also include facilities for liquefying gases. A fluid line for oil or gas extends from below the water line inside the vertical column to the mooring point above the water line. A pair of mooring arms is pivotally attached to a table pivoted on the mooring point, and the arms diverge with their other ends attached to the barge at zones spaced from each other. The arms are extensible and each of them has a compensator which tends to hold each arm to a predetermined length. Each compensator also restrains the rate of movement during extension and contraction of its arm. A fluid-flow line extends from the mooring point to the barge with flexible interconnections between the fluid-flow lines above the water line.

Abstract: The invention relates to a mooring system, comprising a tanker (1,9,15,22,72,86,104,131) and a device (5,11,20,61,74,95,111,135) having some type of anchor (3,10,23,66,71,68,77,113,140), the tanker being rotatably connected with that device for rotation about a vertical axis (4,117). A conduit (6,24,25,45,46,122-125) extends upwardly towards that device (5,11,20,61,74,95,111,135) and towards a swivel (38,58,79,102,121) concentric with that axis (4,117) and from the swivel towards the tanker, the system having a quick connect coupling (83,84,85,91,92,97,116,117,118). The device (5, etc.) preferably has controllable buoyancy and can be of any type including a normal mooring buoy.

Abstract: A device for rapidly mooring a floating installation to a marine installation fastened to the ocean bottom includes a rigid connecting arm horizontally articulated at one end at a connection to the floating installation. The other end of the arm includes a connector having guides for being retained on a pathway of the marine installation. To effect retention of the guides on the pathway, the connector also includes a temporary separation mechanism which urges the guides away from the marine installation pathway to enable effecting connection with the connector, whereupon the separation mechanism brings the guides in contact with the pathway. To effect separation, the mechanism is adapted for reverse operation.

Abstract: A heavy-duty slowly pivoting shaft and bearing system for an offshore mooring terminal, of a type which includes a heavy-duty shaft with opposite ends that are each rotatably mounted on a radial bearing assembly, wherein bearings at each of the assemblies can be removed while the shaft continues to be rotatably supported to permit its uninterrupted use. Each bearing assembly includes a housing arm with a hole that receives an end of the shaft, a main bearing lying near the outer end of the hole to permit its replacement by sliding it off an extreme end of the shaft, and an auxiliary bearing lying at the inner end of the hole near the middle of the shaft. The auxiliary bearing is formed in a plurality of segments that each extend by less than a half circle around the shaft, to permit the segments to be individually placed about the shaft and forced between the housing arm and shaft.

Abstract: A single point mooring apparatus especially adapted for securing large marine tanker vessels or subsea hydrocarbon well collection and storage barges in relatively shallow water is disclosed. The floating mooring buoy structure is connected to a mooring base secured to the ocean floor by a plurality of tension leg attachment members of predetermined length. The buoyancy of the floating buoy structure is controlled to produce sufficient tension in the attachment member to provide a position restoring force to the moored marine vessel. The floating buoy structure is formed by an open frame work having a conical shape to minimize impact with ice floes on the floating buoy structure and have fully submerged buoyancy tanks to minimize the effect of wave forces and tied level variations on the position restoring force.

Abstract: A yoke mooring system pivoted on the forecastle of a vessel, such as a shuttle tanker, is detachably coupled to a riser which is attached to a base located on the ocean floor. The yoke mooring system includes clamping arms which engage a ball with an axial passage at the upper end of the riser. Hydraulic cylinders raise and lower the yoke, and a hydraulic cylinder shifts mechanical linkages to open and close clamping arms mounted on the yoke. A socket is formed in the clamping arms to receive the ball. Cargo piping on the vessel is joined to the ball through hoses and a fluid swivel. Fluid cargo can pass upwardly through the riser, through the ball, through the fluid swivel and hoses, and then through cargo piping to storage tanks on the vessel. Bearings situated between the riser and the ball allow the ball to rotate such that, when the clamping arms are coupled to the ball, the vessel can rotate about the riser without disrupting fluid flow or damaging the riser.

Abstract: A single leg mooring terminal is described, of the type which includes a riser extending up from the sea floor to moor a vessel, and a separate fluid conduit extending up from the sea floor to carry oil to or from the vessel, and wherein the riser and hose structure must both rotate without limit about the same vertical axis to follow drifting of the vessel. A turntable near the sea floor, rotatably supports the riser about a vertical axis, and has a hole along its vertical axis through which a portion of the fluid conduit extends. A fluid swivel of the fluid conduit, lies under the turntable and is accessible through a hole in the turntable.

Abstract: A permanent single-point mooring arrangement for a floating unit comprises a buoy anchored to the seabed with anchor points and catenary shaped anchor lines, which are connected to a central shaft located in the buoy around which the buoy--and the floating unit moored to the buoy--can rotate in a horizontal plane, a yoke for attaching the floating unit to the buoy being such that the floating unit may also move in a vertical plane so as to accommodate the relative motion between the buoy and the floating unit caused by wave action and loading conditions of the floating unit, the attachment for the floating unit being formed of a rigid connecting yoke which is attached at one end to the buoy and at the other to the floating unit and the attachment also comprising flexible joints associated with the rigid yoke, two radial and one axial flexible joint permitting a horizontal hinge motion between the buoy and the yoke at one side and between the yoke and the floating unit at the other, and is characterized in tha

Abstract: A mooring and fluid transfer system of the type which utilizes a yoke pivotally connected at its opposite ends to a ship and to a buoy, which enables the use of hard piping along the fluid conduit which couples the buoy to the ship. A cross arm whose middle is rotatably mounted about a vertical axis on top of the buoy and whose opposite ends connect to the arms of the yoke, has a cutout between its middle and ends. The fluid conduit includes a fluid swivel joint for accommodating pivotal movement of the yoke, which lies in the cutout so the axis of the fluid joint is coincident with the horizontal axis of pivoting of the yoke on the yoke connector.

Abstract: A ball and socket articulated connection in which the socket has an associated enclosed chamber for fluid transfer through the connection. A fluid conduit hole extends through the ball and a fluid conduit communicates with the chamber. It can be used at the base of an offshore tower secured to a sea floor site.

Abstract: A mooring assembly connects a submarine conduit to another conduit of a pipe-line or fixed installation. The mooring assembly comprises a mooring frame, a movable mooring arm and a mooring head. The conduit is to be connected to the mooring head having a lateral passage through which the end of the conduit may extend. The movable mooring arm is pivotally mounted on the mooring frame. One end of said other conduit is fixed on the pivot axis of the mooring arm. A connecting pipe connects the end of the submarine conduit to the end of the other conduit. A coupling assembly at the outwardly extending end of the mooring head pivotally connects an axial extension of the end of the conduit to be connected to the mooring head.

Abstract: The device is made up of a connecting arm provided with rollers which bears on a cylindrical portion of the outer wall of the anchored offshore installation. Belts encircling this installation and the rollers are stretched to press these rollers against the cylindrical surface and permit rotation of the arm relative to the offshore installation.

Abstract: A single leg mooring terminal is described, of the type which includes a buoy assembly extending from the sea floor to the sea surface to moor a tanker vessel, and a separate fluid conduit extending at an upward incline to the vessel for carrying oil to or from it, and wherein the buoy assembly includes a tilt joint and both the buoy assembly and hose structure must rotate without limit about the same vertical axis to follow drifting of the vessel about the installation. The vertical rotation joint which joins the rotatable upper portion of the buoy assembly to the stationary lower portion thereof, is located below the tilt joint, and a fluid swivel of the conduit is joined to a sidewardly-extending pipe which extends sidewardly at a level above the vertical rotation joint but below the top of the tilt joint.

Abstract: In order to transfer a fluid from a station on the sea bed for a vessel or vice versa, a discharging/loading buoy comprising coupling apparatus for fluid flow is placed in a submerged state and fixed in this state with anchoring apparatus. A vessel is brought and held in position above the buoy by means of dynamic positioning. Then the coupling apparatus for the fluid flow is connected to a coupling section on the vessel.

Abstract: Apparatus by which a fluid can be transported through a conduit from a first body to a second body joined together by a universal joint comprising first and second fluid swivels positioned about 90.degree. from each other and with each swivel located exterior of, and axially in line with an axis of, a universal joint having two definable axes of rotation, an elbow conduit exterior of the universal joint having its ends connected to the two swivels, a first conduit extending out from the first swivel and secured to the first body, and a second conduit extending out from the second swivel and secured to the second body.