Conoco's tension leg platform will double water depth capability
Conoco Inc.'s design of the world's first tension-leg platform will make it possible to produce oil and gas in 2000-ft waters and deeper. Scheduled for North Sea installation by 1984, the TLP is basically a massive semisubmersible connected to anchor templates on the seafloor by 12 vertical mooring tethers or tenson legs. Once moored, the platform exhibits almost no vertical motion; the maximum lateral excursion possible, even in the most adverse sea states, is only 79 ft. Special flex joints located at the top and bottom of each tether allow a 14/sup 0/ motion to protect the heavily tensioned tether from flexure during storm conditons. The primary advantages offered by the TLP are its cost-insensitivity to increased water depths and its portability from one field to another.
- OSTI ID:
- 5159338
- Journal Information:
- Ocean Ind.; (United States), Journal Name: Ocean Ind.; (United States) Vol. 15; ISSN OCIDA
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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