Systems for offshore environmental maintenance
AssigneeSaudi Arabian Oil Company
InventorsOssama R. Sehsah, Mahmoud Adnan Alqurashi
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Abstract
Systems, methods, and apparatuses for detecting and collecting fluids released into a body of water are disclosed. Particularly, detection and collection of a fluid released during a petroleum exploration or production operation are disclosed. A released fluid may be detected using sensors on a submersible vehicle (SV) or a plurality of SVs operating in concert. A detected released fluid is collected in storage tanks onboard of the one or more SVs or in an external tank coupled to the one or more SVs.
Claims22
A method for detecting a presence of a released fluid in a body of water and collecting the released fluid from the body of water, the released fluid released from a petroleum operation, the method comprising:
- detecting the presence of the released fluid in the body of water with a submersible vehicle;
- based on detecting the presence of the released fluid, operating a fluid collection system of the submersible vehicle to collect the released fluid into an internal storage tank of the submersible vehicle;
- and
- transferring the released fluid from the internal storage tank of the submersible vehicle to an external storage tank on a surface of the body of water via a conduit.
A system for detecting a presence of a released fluid in a body of water and collecting the released fluid from the body of water, the released fluid released from a petroleum operation, the system comprising:
- (A) an external storage tank;
- (B) a submersible vehicle comprising:
- a plurality of sensors to detect a presence of the released fluid;
- an internal storage tank;
- and
- a fluid collection system configured to collect the released fluid from the body of water near the petroleum operation and transfer the released fluid from the internal storage tank to the external storage tank;
- (C) a conduit coupled between the internal storage tank of the submersible vehicle and the external storage tank to conduct a flow of the released fluid;
- and
- (D) one or more processors and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium coupled to the one or more processors and storing programming instructions for execution by the one or more processors, the programming instructions instructing the one or more processors to:
- detect, by the plurality of sensors, the presence of the released fluid in the body of water near the petroleum operation;
- based on detecting the presence of the released fluid, operate the fluid collection system to collect the released fluid into the internal storage tank;
- and
- transfer the released fluid from the internal storage tank of the submersible vehicle to the external storage tank via the conduit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.