Recoverable system for mooring mobile offshore drilling units
AssigneeAker Marine, Inc.
InventorsThomas M. Fulton, Peter George Scott Dove, Gordon R. Wilde, Johannes Jacobus Treu
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Abstract
In a system for mooring offshore drilling units, a first mooring assembles installed at a first drilling venue, after which the mobile offshore drilling unit is moored by connection to the mooring lines. A second mooring assembly is installed at a second drilling venue while drilling operations are carried out at the first drilling venue. In this manner the mobile offshore drilling unit can be relocated between successive drilling venues with minimum down time. Less than complete mooring assemblies can be used to temporarily secure the mobile offshore drilling unit.
Claims13
A recoverable anchor system comprising:
- an elongate, hollow cylinder having an open bottom and a substantially closed top;
- a pumping port mounted at the top of the cylinder for selectively allowing the flow of water into and out of the cylinder;
- a remote control vehicle, adapted to mateably engage with the cylinder below sea surface;
- pump means mounted on the remote control vehicle for selective operation to pump water into or out of the cylinder through the port thereby causing a pressure differential between the inside and the outside of the cylinder which causes the cylinder to move into and out of engagement with the sea floor;
- and
- control means located at the sea surface for selectively causing the pump on the remote control vehicle to pump water into or out of the cylinder.
A system for underwater anchoring of mooring assemblies, said system comprising:
- a suction anchor member;
- an remote control vehicle adapted to manipulatively couple with said suction anchor member below a water surface;
- and
- a control cable coupled to said remote control vehicle and adapted to provide control to said remote control vehicle from above the water surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.