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US 6,994,506 B2Granted
Transfer assembly for a hydrocarbon product
AssigneeBluewater Terminal Systems N.V.
InventorJacob de Baan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
To increase the safety of a transfer assembly for hydrocarbon products, particularly liquefied natural gas from a production site to a transport vessel (8) (such as a shuttle tanker), the invention proposes to provide the production site with an outrigger structure (10) with at the distant end thereof a compacted length of a flexible product transfer hose (20).
Claims7
A transfer assembly for transferring a hydrocarbon product from a production site to a transporting vessel, the transfer assembly comprising:
- an outrigger structure mounted on the production site above the water line, and covering between 30% and 60% of a described safety distance between the production site and the vessel;
- and
- a compacted length of a flexible product transfer hose at a distant end of the transfer assembly, wherein an input end of the transfer hose is operable to be connected to a product delivery point, and wherein an outlet end of the transfer hose is operable to be connected to an inlet connection on the transporting vessel wherein the outrigger structure comprises an arm, divided by at least one hinge with a generally vertical pivot axis into at least two parts, of which at least an outer one is free to move over a pre-defined angle with respect to the longitudinal axis of the arm structure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.