Flowline jumper for subsea well
AssigneeVetco Gray Inc.
InventorsGawain Langford, Francisco Dezen, Lars-Petter Sollie, Stephen P. Fenton
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A subsea well system has a flowline jumper that extends between components on the sea floor. The jumper has connectors on each end for connecting to the two components and has a curved portion. At least a portion of the jumper is buoyant to cause it to assume a vertical arcuate configuration when installed. One end of the jumper has a connector that has a mandrel that guides into a mating socket formed on the end of an arm. The arm is mounted to a ring that can be rotated to various orientations.
Claims31
In a subsea well system having first and second components spaced laterally apart from each other a selected distance along a sea floor, the improvement comprising:
- a flowline having a curved portion with an apogee;
- first and second connectors on opposite ends of the flowline that are connected to the first and second components, respectively;
- and
- at least part of the curved portion of the flowline being buoyant to cause the apogee to be at a higher elevation than the first and second connectors.
In a subsea well system having a subsea production tree having a flowline coupling spaced laterally from a flowline coupling of a processing component located on a sea floor, the improvement comprising:
- a flowline having a curved portion with an apogee;
- connectors on opposite ends of the flowline connected to the couplings for flowing fluids between the tree and the component;
- and
- a buoyant jacket located on at least the curved portion of the flowline, causing the curved portion to maintain an upright configuration, with the apogee located at a higher elevation than remaining portions of the flowline.
A method of transmitting fluids between subsea first and second components that area separated laterally from each other on a sea floor, comprising:
- lowering a flowline into the sea and connecting first and second ends of the flowline to the first and second components, respectively, the flowline having a curved portion with buoyancy sufficient to position an apogee of the curved portion at an elevation higher than the ends of the flowline.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.