Drilling vessel with moveable substructure

A drilling vessel for selectively drilling two or more wells from a single location of said vessel, comprising:

• (a) a buoyant hull having a deck, including ballasting means in said hull for allowing said vessel to be stabilized on the bottom surface of a body of water;
• (b) a movable substructure in contact with said deck, wherein said movable substructure includes:
• (i) a drilling platform having a plurality of downwardly extending support legs attached thereto, wherein the height of said drilling platform from said deck is sufficient to allow simultaneous drilling and production activities to occur;
• and
• (ii) repositioning means, operatively connected between said support members and said deck, for moving said drilling platform in a predetermined direction relative to said deck.

A mobile drilling system, comprising:

• (a) a buoyant vessel having a deck, said vessel including:
• (i) a drilling platform movably mounted on said deck and movable relative to said vessel, wherein said movable drilling platform may be moved on said deck to enable drilling two or more wells from a single vessel location;
• (ii) a keyway formed into said vessel through which drilling may occur;
• (b) a well protect structure fixed in a waterbottom and operatively disposed in a fixed position within said keyway of said vessel, said well protect structure comprising two or more protective vertical members through which drilling may occur, the positions of said two or more protective vertical members defining a positional pattern for drilling of wells through said well protect structure, said drilling platform movable over each of said protective vertical members;
• and
• (c) a protective deck removably connectable to said well protect structure, said protective deck disposed above said well protect structure and below said drilling platform, said protective deck not connected to said drilling platform and thereby remaining in a fixed location when said drilling platform moves, wherein said protective deck includes a reinforced deck surface.