Corrugated pipe for deepwater applications
AssigneeShell Oil Company
InventorCarl G. Langner
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In the laying of deepwater pipelines, corrugated pipe is substituted for standard pipe in order to take advantage of a substantially stronger structure of much lighter weight.
Claims16
A method for using corrugated pipe, comprising providing the pipe with an inside liner having a laterally flat inside surface, forming a pipeline from corrugated pipe having a peak-to-valley measure of the corrugations of about one to about three pipe wall thicknesses, deploying the pipeline to a deepwater location at a depth of more than 2,000 feet of water and passing at least one of a pig and scraper through the pipeline.
A method for laying a deepwater pipeline from a vessel comprising, providing a pipeline having corrugations along the length thereof, gripping the pipeline with tensioners which grip the corrugations of the pipeline and tensioning the pipeline with the tensioners during the deployment of the pipeline from the vessel, whereby the corrugations facilitate tensioning.
A method for using corrugated pipe having a peak-to-valley measure of the corrugations of about one to about three pipe wall thicknesses, comprising forming a pipeline from the corrugated pipe, winding the corrugated pipeline on a reel, locating the reel onboard a vessel, and deploying the corrugated pipeline from the reel and vessel to an underwater location.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.