Method and system for laying a pipeline on the bed of a body of water
AssigneeSaipem S.P.A.
InventorsStefano Bianchi, Massimo Bellin
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of laying a pipeline on the bed of a body of water includes constructing, on a laying vessel, a pipeline having pipe sections of a designated or given thickness, and thicker pipe sections distributed along the pipeline; moving the laying vessel forward and laying the pipeline in the body of water as the pipeline is constructed; and propelling a train, configured to plug the pipeline, in steps inside the pipeline laid on the bed of the body of water; the step travel of the train being related to the position of the thicker pipe sections, and to the touchdown point of the pipeline on the bed of the body of water.
Claims17
A method of laying a pipeline on a bed of a body of water, the method comprising:
- constructing, on a laying vessel, a pipeline including:
- (i) a plurality of first pipe sections of a first thickness, and (ii) a plurality of spaced apart second pipe sections of a second, greater thickness;
- moving the laying vessel forward and laying the pipeline in the body of water as the pipeline is constructed;
- and
- moving a train, configured to plug the pipeline, inside the pipeline laid on the bed of the body of water, wherein movement of the train being related to a position of at least one of the second pipe sections and related to a touchdown point of the pipeline on the bed of the body of water.
A pipeline laying system comprising:
- a laying vessel configured to construct a pipeline including:
- (i) a plurality of first pipe sections of a first thickness, and (ii) a plurality of spaced apart second pipe sections of a second, greater thickness;
- a laying ramp configured to lay the pipeline in a body of water as the laying vessel moves forward;
- a train configured to move inside of the pipeline and configured to be activated to plug the pipeline;
- and
- a control unit configured to control movement of the train based on a position of at least one of the second pipe sections and a touchdown point of the pipeline on a bed of the body of water.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.